Page 2 of Ever Dark Academy: Vol. 1

The cobwebs of them left him not sure what was real and what was not when he made his way down the stairs from his small rat-hole apartment above the convenience store to start his shift. Manny had let him rent it incredibly cheap as a perk of working the late shift. The shop had been robbed a few times and no one wanted to work there after that. Now that the Vampires had shown up no one really wanted to work after dark. But Grayson wasn’t afraid of being on his own. The gift that had made his life Hell also kept him safe now.

Now that I can mostly control it, he thought.

His attention went back to the television. The newscasters were still talking about the Vampires and their school.

“I suppose if you’re interviewing people that you’re going to spend all of eternity with you have to be a little choosie!” Candi laughed too brightly.

“Right you are, Candi! But more than that, there are ten very different Vampire Bloodlines that will be required to find their fledglings among the students,” Karl answered just as brightly. “The eleventh, of course, is Daemon’s Bloodline, but Julian will be his only fledgling.”

“So the Vampires can’t just pick someone off the street and turn them?” Candi asked. She really did make these canned lines almost seem natural.

“They used to, but as part of the Blood Pact between humans and Vampires, it has been agreed that only students at the academy are eligible to be turned into Vampires,” Karl reminded her and the audience. “So they need to have a large selection of different types of candidates, I assume.”

“So will everyone at the academy be chosen to be turned?” Candi asked, shuffling the papers in front of her.

“No, not everyone. Though the candidates are referred to as students and the academy is a school of sorts, the truth is that while they will be learning about Vampires, of course, they will really continue being tested,” Karl explained.

“Tested? But what are the Vampires looking for exactly? Is there something similar about the candidates?” Candi asked.

“Not that I could tell, but our audience should make its own determination,” Karl said, turning fully back to the camera. “As you know from our own Bryce Williams’ interviews with several of these students, they share little in common!”

A segment of one of those interviews flashed across the screen. The first student was an elderly Japanese man. The white hair on his head was thinning so that some of his scalp could be seen through the fine strands. His skin had the papery appearance that many elderly people got. But his dark eyes were alight with intelligence and life. He was dressed neatly in all black, hands folded almost primly in his lap. He smiled at the interviewer, one Bryce Williams, with benevolence and patience.

“So Mr. Goda, I have to admit that you are not the typical person I would expect the Vampires would choose as a potential fledgling,” Bryce stated with an uncertain smile on his Ken-doll like face.

Grayson guessed that Mr. Goda could have easily taken offense at this statement on multiple levels and multiple ways.

But Mr. Goda smiled warmly and answered, “I wondered to myself if they would take someone of my advanced years. After all, when we see Vampires in the media, they are always young and beautiful. I am none of those things.”

Grayson had to agree with Mr. Goda. Not about his looks, but about his age. Eiji looked to be in his 80s. Though now that real Vampires were presenting themselves for interviews, there was far more variety in age, race and body type than he had assumed there would be. He admitted he had believed that they would all be Eastern European in appearance with pale faces and sharp teeth. There were plenty of people that fit that stereotype, but far more that didn’t. In fact, there were Vampires from every country on the planet. They were everywhere or so it seemed. Or so it was feared

“You’re quite handsome, Mr. Goda,” Bryce told him kindly.

“Eiji, please. I am beyond such vanity now, I hope,” Eiji Goda said with a quiet chuckle.

“Eiji, and please call me Bryce. Now what made you want to become a Vampire?” Bryce asked, putting on a serious expression as if he could pick emotions out of a closet and try them on for size.

Eiji cocked his head to the side in an almost birdlike manner. He seemed so frail that Grayson worried his neck would snap from the movement. He sincerely hoped that whatever testing was done in the academy that it didn’t require physical exertion because it looked like a weak wind might be able to carry him away with it.

“Ah, I see what you mean. In some ways, I imagine that people look at me–having had a full and satisfying life–and hope that I would be content to go into the next one,” Eiji suggested, even as it was clear that he did not agree with that viewpoint. “Wanting immortality at my age might seem greedy.”

Bryce put on a concerned expression. “I think that since most of us will never get the opportunity to become immortal that we look to our elders to accept that we move on from this life. I think there is, well, panic now at the thought of death, even though we’ve been assured there is something beyond it, because there is a choice where there seemingly wasn’t before. To see that someone, as you yourself described, after having a long, satisfying life still wants to become a Vampire… well, I think it makes people more nervous about their own mortality.”

Eiji nodded, also looking serious, but then a small, almost impish smile, played over his wizened face as he said, “I cannot speak for others, only myself, but I can say that my 82 years on this planet have not been enough by half. If I was content to pass on, I would not have applied to the academy and the Vampires would not have accepted me. So do not look to me as an example of those who would find contentment in another life, but one that will fight with all he has to stay in this one.”

Bryce smiled back. “So you’re saying that you’re an example for those in their golden years who don’t want to fade away?”

“Exactly. And I would argue, Bryce, that young people are the least able to know if they wish to live forever,” Eiji smiled kindly as he said it. “Remember that old adage: youth is wasted on the young.”

The segment ended and it went back to Karl and Candi.

“What an interesting fellow!” Candi exclaimed. “Are all the students like him?”

“Eighty-two years old and a successful businessman out of Tokyo? No, but I do have to say that each candidate is quite impressive. Let’s watch another interview of an Ever Dark Academy student,” Karl enthused.

The screen changed to show the Ken-doll like Bryce sitting opposite a plump, smiling Indian woman who looked to be in her early thirties. Her smile was wide, but there was a wariness in her brown eyes as she regarded Bryce, but Grayson couldn’t decide whether it was personal to the reporter or if she was just naturally cautious. Dressed in a black pants suit with a bright red scarf, she looked like a highly successful professional.

“Now, your name is Amara Biswas, correct?” Bryce asked. “I should say Dr. Biswas?”

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