Page 1 of Ever Dark Academy: Vol. 1

CHOSEN

“Vampires are real,” the beautiful young man said. He was smiling and serene. His purple eyes were mesmerizing. Even over the crappy, convenience store television set with the occasional loss of signal and fuzziness, he made the viewer want to hear everything he had to say, and believe it, too. “And tonight we’re going to start to answer your questions about them, and even tell you how you might become one.”

A female newscaster interrupted the segment stating, “As many of you already know, that is Julian Harrow, son of the famous explorers and television personalities, Jack and Joanna Harrow, who, until recently, were dead.”

She glanced down at her notes, as if she wanted to confirm that part was true, though it had been stated time and time again by other reporters, confirmed by scientists, and affirmed by almost every country on earth. Vampires and people coming back from the dead were real and it just got stranger after that.

“But, most importantly, Julian Harrow is the Vampire Prince,” she said, her voice lifting at the word Vampire. “He is the one and only fledgling of Vampire King Daemon whose school for aspiring Vampires is opening tomorrow. Or, as it is always night in the Ever Dark, where the school is located, we should say it will be opening tomorrow night.”

She paused and smiled at the audience as if to see if they all got her little joke.

“Julian and his best friend--an Eyros Bloodline Vampire--Christian Thorne are recording a series of videos that will be shared with the public,” she said, showing just a trace of traditional media’s disdain for Youtube content creators. But considering the sleek and glamorous video of Julian Harrow she’d just shown no one could truly deny that the series didn’t look incredibly professional. “They are documenting their own and the Harrows’ journeys to becoming Vampires. Our understanding is that another segment will be aired--”

Grayson Duke changed the channel on the television to another of the nightly news programs. He wanted to see the weather. Rain streaked the glass door of the convenience store, making the outside street lights blur and causing passersby to hunch over as the rain pelted their heads. But every program it seemed was focused on the opening of Ever Dark Academy. Grayson grimaced. The last thing he wanted to do was think about Vampires or, more accurately, was to have anyone else thinking about Vampires and their gifts.

I wonder if they consider them curses, too, Grayson thought sourly.

Ever since the existence of preternatural beings had been confirmed, that was all anyone and everyone wanted to talk about. And, worryingly, it had opened some minds to the possibility of other things being real, too. And Grayson really didn’t want that.

It made Grayson nervous, because before it had become common knowledge that the paranormal was real, mistakes he made with his own gift were easily explained away. A trick of the light. Something in a person’s eye. A freak occurrence. But now people were willing to believe and that led to all sorts of problems.

Before he could change the channel again he had to set down the remote as a customer had come up to the till wanting to be rung up.

As Grayson scanned the barcodes on the man’s purchases--a gallon of milk, Slim Jims, Cheetos, and a package of Trojan ribbed condoms, which Grayson thought were just wishful thinking--another newscaster spoke up.

This time it was a man with a plastic smile and unmoving hair, who said, “Only 100 people from all around the world were chosen to attend this first class of Ever Dark Academy after a rigorous vetting process.”

“Is it true, Karl, that the students were all interviewed by Eyros Bloodline Vampires? You know, the ones that can read minds?” His bubbly blonde co-anchor asked.

She was all wide-eyed as if this was new to her. But Grayson was certain that every reporter around the world could repeat the names of the Vampire Bloodlines–there were 11–and what their powers were–each one was different and they ranged from reading minds to bringing back the dead–without missing a beat. But it appeared that these newscasters were pretending to be their own audience. Though, again, Grayson wondered if anyone with access to a television or the internet was unaware of the Vampires and what they could do now. But perhaps hearing about them on their local nightly news made their existence less impossible.

“That is true, Candi! The Immortal Eyros himself did the final sweep of their minds!” Karl answered her with a megawatt smile in return. “But that was just one part of the vetting process, which I’m told was extraordinarily rigorous.”

“Can you imagine letting someone in your head like that?” the male customer asked as Grayson stuffed the man’s purchases into a paper bag. “I mean, fuck yeah, eternity, but fuck no, knowing about my private thoughts.”

The male customer’s face was heavily lined with exhaustion and hard living. Grayson wondered though if he truly had any secrets that a Vampire would care about, let alone be shocked by. In his 24 years of life, Grayson had found that most people were intensely boring.

Their secrets were about cheating on their partners, having the “wrong” kind of kink or talking behind their friends’ backs. He didn’t look down upon them for living lives that really wouldn’t cause a Vampire to lift an eyebrow. After all, he had the opposite problem. He had real secrets that he was pretty damned sure would keenly interest the immortals and humans as well. He would never allow his mind to be read if he could help it.

Guess no academy for me, he thought mirthlessly.

Yet Grayson found himself asking, “But if you really had a chance to live forever would you turn it down just because someone wants to look in your head one time?”

The man, who had a toothpick in his mouth, switched it from one side to the other before answering, “They’re never going to choose people like us to join their immortal, perfect life, are they?”

Without waiting for Grayson to answer, he picked up his purchases and left. The bell over the door to the convenience store rang loud and clear to mark his passage.

Like us? Grayson thought as he closed the till’s drawer again.

He and the man probably shared some things in common. They were both poor, lived in a dangerous part of the city, likely both worked a dead end job, and wondered if their futures were going to be any different than their presents. While some might believe there was always a brighter tomorrow, Grayson knew that sometimes you just had to pray that your life didn’t get worse. But that was where the similarity in their lives likely ended. He and the customer were nothing alike.

Grayson scrubbed his hands through his thick, dark brown hair that was long on the top and shaved on the sides. It was the easier hairstyle for him to maintain without having to spend precious dollars at the barbershop or beg a friend of a friend to trim it.

He saw a reflection of himself in the little mirror that Tandy had glued to the top of the register to check that she didn’t have lipstick on her teeth. He looked pale and his angular face appeared drawn. His skin was a little too tight over his high cheekbones and around his square jaw. His light gray eyes were shadowed. He was already exhausted and it was only 10:30 pm. His shift wouldn’t end until 6 am the next morning when Tandy relieved him.

He grabbed a Coke from the mini-fridge under the counter and popped it open, taking a deep swallow of the sweet, carbonated beverage. He had to stay awake. He’d not been sleeping well since the Vampires had outed themselves several months before.

He didn’t think they were emissaries of Satan or demons in disguise or anything like that, which was causing some people to go out hunting them–unsuccessfully, of course–with crosses and wooden stakes. He’d just been having dreams. His memories of them were hazy at best, but they woke him up leaving him feeling breathless, exhilarated and terrified at the same time.

---