Chapter seventeen
Not a word was spoken for many moments. Peter’s screams had lessened to a gasping whimper, they seemed to echo in the silence. Phillip scoffed.
“A vampire?” He said critically. “Oh, I get it, we’re being played . Vampires don’t exist!” He looked at Eloy and Donte. They were shaking their heads and they looked very dejected. Before they could speak, Lye reacted. She wrapped her slender hand around Phillip’s throat and lifted him off the ground.
“Oh,” She said “I can assure you that we exist.”
“Lye put him down!” Donte shouted at her.
“Why? I’m proving my existence.”
“Lye,” Eloy sounded tired, and disheveled. Lye rolled her eyes and opened her hand, Phillip dropped three feet to the ground and stood rubbing his throat. Which was now red and had finger imprints on it.
“You can’t stop the change, once the venom takes a hold of a human, it makes sure it does its job. In other words,” Lye paused and looked at Peter who had quieted, but was still moaning. “My venom is killing him.” Jaws dropped.
“Killing him?” Aden asked. Lye turned her head to look at him.
“Yes, killing him. But then it will, sort of, resurrect him in his… Lets call it the morphing stage. The morphing stage will end once he has completed the change from human, to undead.” Lye looked over them all. “If that makes sense to any of you, I will be very surprised.” Several moments passed before Mr. Roblin spoke.
“Let’s go back to the dinning room.”
“No!” They all cried. “We’re not leaving Peter!” Mr. Roblin swept his stern gaze over the boys.
“There is nothing you can do for him now! The sooner you accept that the better!” They had no choice but to follow the two men down stairs and passage ways again, this time feeling numb.
They entered the dinning room and everyone looked up expectantly. Suddenly, Hayden burst.
Do you actually expect me to believe that Lye is a vampire?” He shouted. Declan stood up.
“So she actually did it?” He asked. The two men nodded.
“Yes, Peter is going to join the vampire race.” Donte replied. Everyone in the dinning room groaned, except for the newbies.
“What, are you talking about?” Michelle squeaked. Mr. Roblin cleared his throat.
“Alright, everyone sit down. It’s time for the whole story to come out.” Hayden was still fuming and had to be pushed into his seat, Eloy began.
“The tale we told you about Dracula being cursed in this manor, is true. Centuries ago Dark Side Manor Academy was built by Lye herself to house fellow vampires, who were being hunted. It turned into a school for the creature world. We quickly learned that our world was dying out. Especially the creatures that cannot age, and therefor, cannot reproduce. So Dean Silk proposed that every year, we accept humans from the outside world, to transform them, to change their species, to repopulate. Most hate the fact that we have to do this, but it is the only way. And so, before this year is up, you all will have changed and joined the creature world.” The silence was interrupted with shouts of disbelief. Donte quieted them down.
“Prove it!” Dave cried. Eloy nodded.
“Alright then, if that is what you wish. I am a Spi-person. That means I can transform into a spider.” He paused and pointed at a fellow newbie Jack. “You almost stepped on me yesterday.”
“Sorry?” No one would ever forget what they next saw. Before their eyes, Eloy shrunk, they blinked and next thing they knew they were starring at a large black spider.
“This isn’t possible!” Terrence began to panic. Declan clapped his hand on Terrence’s shoulder, holding him into his seat. Terrence twisted away and looked up at Declan. “What are you?” Declan barely blinked.
“I am also a vampire, like Lye, and Ecrin. That is what we mean by the ‘disease’. At the height of the change the venom turn’s one’s eyes golden. When it is finished only a ring around the iris is left. That is how you can tell vampires apart from other creatures. Lye and I were changed by the same master, that is why we are siblings.” Declan didn’t wait for anyone to respond. He immediately turned and rushed out the door, at the speed of light he traveled to the secret room. The changing room.
Declan opened the door to find a mostly unconscious Peter, and a very calm Lye. Their eyes locked.
“Why Lye? Declan asked her. “Why him, why now?” Lye cast her eyes down, she hesitated before speaking.
“I felt the pull.” Lye said gently. “Plus, I wanted to. Declan, when was the last time I ever asked for anything?” Declan blinked at her question.
“Never.” He responded. Lye stood, her eyes training on her brother.
“Exactly.” Lye whispered. “I’ve never asked for anything, and why should I? There was never anything I wanted. Until now.” She looked over to Peter’s mostly limp body. “When I met him it was like he was a magnet pulling me towards him. It surprised me at first because I’ve only felt that feeling once before.” Declan nodded.
“Ashleign.” He said, Lye gave him a faint smile.
“I feel the same way towards Peter as I did to Ashleign. Maybe a bit different though. It is also the same way you feel about Claire. I couldn’t deny that, and I couldn’t change it. But I could change him. And besides Declan, you know that today was once a day marked by sadness and death. Now, for me it has a bright spot. A bit of life. So I ask you this, will you be alright with it? My changing Peter?”
Declan sighed, he walked towards Lye and pulled her into a hug. “Yes, I am. I know how much this means to you.” He whispered in her ear.
§***§
The dining room’s air was thick with tension. Several hours had passed and no one had moved. What they now knew was burning itself into their brains. It all made sense now, Lye’s strangeness. Her golden eyes. Why the Academy seemed so secretive and mysterious. Why they weren’t allowed in the woods. It was because when they accepted their places at the school they had actually accepted a passport into another world. Vampires exist, some strange spider creatures exists. What next? Zombies? Werewolves? The thoughts were terrifying, and they felt very unreal.
“What are you?” George asked shakily, pointing at Donte. He was the first to speak in hours, he was the first one who had dared. Sore necks pulled themselves up from tired hands to look at George, and follow his finger to Donte. Donte cleared his throat and answered the young newbie.
“I am a wolf person by change, not by birth. A few of you met Inika, she is a wolf person by birth. Her father is our pack Alpha, he is also called Ash the Wolf King.” Aden seemed shocked, but he was taking this all the best out of all of them.
“Wolf person?” He said slowly. “Don’t you mean a…” Claire clapped her hand over his mouth.
“Never, ever ask a wolf person if he means a werewolf instead of wolf person. Werewolves and wolf people are two completely different species and they find that question extremely offensive.” She warned him.
Blake, Wit, Olly, and Wince nodded. “It’s true, us werewolves find it very offensive.” Wit said.
“Well what is the difference?” Aden asked. He really wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer or not. This whole day was beginning to feel like a living nightmare.
“A wolf person can be born, or changed. They turn into an actual wolf and wolfsbane or other plants like that have no effect on us. Werewolves are bitten and are rarely born. They can only turn on the full moon unlike wolf people. Also werewolves don’t look like actual wolves.” Donte explained.
“That is not our fault!” Blake yelled down the room. Jerald found his voice.
“Do we get to choose what we become? If we have to become something.” Mr. Roblin nodded and answered Jerald.
“Sometimes you get to choose, sometimes a specific group will choose you. If you do not become something by the end of the last semester, Dean Silk will choose for you. It is a rule that no human, may stay a human past one year.” Daniela sniffed, tears covered her face.
“Why?” She asked. Eloy sighed.
“That is just how it is. We cannot change it.”
Dark Side Manor 