Jane hadn't cared when she looked into the mirror that morning. There was nothing noticeable, just two little holes the size of a needle. With a simple pull at the shirt collar, they were easily hidden.
Until her clothes got messy by the perpetrator sitting right here.
"What!?!" Amelia gasped, her eyes wanting to fall out. "He nearly killed you? No, that can't be. Yes, Ryan may have some weird fetishes, but he is smarter than that!"
"I fainted from the blood loss, Amelia."
"Well, it happened before, but they know when to stop..."
"He didn't stop!" Jane raised her voice.
Then, she immediately lowered her head. The sudden outburst had drained her last ounce of strength. Her shoulder and hands trembled with every words she spoke next:
"When I woke up...there was no one. Only me… He was gone. I... I don't know where he went, or what happened to him."
She took a deep breath, forcing her hands to stop shaking and looked at Amelia straight in the eyes: "There is a possibility that something bad happened to him. I saw signs of a fight at the scene."
"That's impossible. The school is completely secure. He can't be hurt in here."
"I know. We can hope that he reappears in a few days... but if he doesn't, I will be the first suspect. His friend saw him chasing after me."
"So? Just tell the truth," Amelia said with such naivety it almost broke Jane's mask.
"I can't. I am the only witness. Who is going to prove what I say is true? They'll think I'm lying. And don't forget, you introduced us. They'll question you, too."
This was too big of a mess to be involved, Amelia knew that. But Jane's gaze was an anchor, hooked deep into her fear, yet gave it a point to hold. The girl in front of her was an unpredictable bomb; whether it would burst into fireworks or blow up in fire depended entirely on what she said next.
"What do we do now?" Amelia sighed, her shoulders slumping. If her mother had been there, she would definitely have gotten a smack on the back.
✦✧✦✧
When Jane saw a group of people in black walking towards her classroom, she was ready. Still, she couldn't stop the cold sweat from escaping through every pore of her body.
She knew they would come, just not this early. Her seat hadn't even gotten warm yet.
The chattering class went silent the moment they entered. It only came back to life after Jane was escorted out the door. What a great way to make a first impression.
"Please tell me what happened that night," the man asked.
He was the scariest adult she had ever met, though he was trying his best to sound gentle. A human investigator would have worked much better for her. All vampires had that strange, magnetic attractiveness about them, no matter how different their features were.
"Well, I met him at the ball," Jane said, trying to keep her voice steady. "I was eating when he came up and asked me to dance. While we were dancing, he said he wanted to play a game… you know, to make things more...exciting."
Jane glanced at the man. The blush on her face emphasized her age, a nervous teenager caught doing something inappropriate.
Her thoughts drifted back to hours ago.
"Can I borrow your make-up?" Jane asked. In times like this, she really had to toss away her shyness, her ego, or whatever it was.
"What? Are you planning to seduce the interrogator?"
"Yeah. If he's into dead-looking people."
Jane shut her mouth, realizing it could actually be a possibility in this place. "Anyway. I can't make him believe I didn't get bitten if I look this unhealthy."
"Fine. In that case, eat this too—"
"Please continue." The man's words pulled Jane back to the cold table.
"Yes. Uhm.... I ran into the forest to hide, then I fell asleep. When I woke up and saw there was still no one, I went back to the dorm."
"At what time did you return?" the man asked.
"I'm not so sure. I was so tired, maybe around 3 a.m.?"
"Can you describe the place you hid?"
"About a ten-minute run into the woods, near a hollow tree. Or fifteen? My sense of time is not that good."
She wasn't lying with that last sentence.
"Thank you for your participation, Jane. One last thing—we will need to perform a thorough check-up. Enter this room." He extended his arm towards the side door. "A female guard will come to assist you."
The gesture was full of elegance but filled with authority. Jane wondered, if she said no, would he drag her there himself?
Just as the air seemed to freeze, a chain of footsteps echoed through the hall — rhythmic, steady, and surely growing louder.
"That won't be necessary."
The speaker stepped through the doorway, increasing the number of dead people in the room to two. Jane never noticed how small and unbreathable this room was until now.
"She is a student of North Wing, under the same protection as any other. You are not allowed to touch her without a proper reason."
Same posture, same outfit. It was the one who announced the ball, the President of the Student Council, whose name she gathered from the gossiping crowd: Carl Alden.
Jane's eyes were wide open. The only thing keeping her jaw from dropping straight to the floor was the other dark cloud standing across from her.
"Mr. Alden, Ryan Hasting has been reported missing," the voice said, his voice stayed firm. "Miss Jane is the last person known to have been in contact with him. She is the critical point in this case."
"He has only been missing for a few hours. Based on his reputation, he could be having fun somewhere and forgot to return."
"Mr. James has already dismissed this theory, as they shared a plan this morning. Mr. Ryan never showed up."
"Performing a check-up on a student whom you have no evidence of is unacceptable," Carl's voice hardened. "I suggest you stop wasting your time and find some actual proof."
"She is our only clue at this point. If I let her go today without a proper investigation, the Hasting family wouldn't accept."
On a battlefield where two guns wouldn't stop pointing at each other, Jane finally found a narrow gap to slip through.
"It's okay. You can perform a search on me."
Her words caught both men's attention, though only one gaze truly mattered to her, and it wasn't the investigator's.
Not a muscle on Carl's face stirred, but she could have sworn she saw a flicker of doubt, or maybe annoyance. Yeah, who wouldn't be annoyed at her ungratefulness?
Jane walked into the side room. The thought of undressing made her uncomfortable, no matter who was there.
"No…no, you don't have to!" the female guard panicked as Jane's hands moved to the back.
"Oh. Sorry," Jane said, dropping the clasp. "First time."
Judging by the argument and her own imagination, she had expected to be examined under a magnifying glass.
When she walked back out, there was only her investigator, still in the same seat.
"She is clean, sir. No scratch on her body," the female guard reported.
Earlier that morning, the conversation with Amelia had led Jane to an unexpected realization: vampire bites left bruises with puncture marks far larger than what she had. Normal human healing took a day or two, thanks to the saliva.
For Jane, it was a single night's sleep.
Visually, she looked fine. Only she knew how aching her head and nose were from hitting the vampire with her own body.
So, she gambled that the marks would be gone by the time anyone wanted to check.
And it was a success.
The thrill, the adrenaline that burned through her head — something she hadn't felt in a long time. Good thing she was too broke to be a gambler.
Jane walked out of the room, trying to keep her feet on the ground. Her dancing eyes, however, betrayed the joy she suppressed – especially to the person waiting outside.
"Let's go," he said. Carl was already standing straight, turning to walk away the moment she appeared.
On their way back across the campus, it wasn't hard keeping her eyes away from him — she was busy keeping up with his pace.
The distance between them slowly narrowed until she finally caught up.
He slowed down just enough to wait for her, as expected of a gentleman.
The wind was gentle as they crossed the yard and stepped back into the main building. To where? Jane had no idea. She simply followed his lead. There was something in the way he carried himself that made Jane believe he wouldn't flinch even if the sky fell.
"Thank you," she said.
He glanced down, waiting for her next words.
"... for helping me there."
"You didn't need my help." He shifted his gaze back to the path ahead.
"Thanks for showing up then. You're a very good President."
It was the only way she knew to show her gratitude. Seeing him through the door earlier stopped her racing heart — not because of his title, but because of how calm he was.
He was the ideal model her mother had always wanted in a daughter.
His face relaxed a small fraction. From Jane's angle, she could only see the reflection of the hallway lights on his glasses, perfectly balanced on his high, straight nose.
"Why do you think I help you?" He turned his head slightly to look at her.
Jane had been wondering the same thing. At first, she was flattered, then suspicious. Was this part of his duty, or did he know something?
Jane stopped herself before her thoughts spiraled into nonsense. If he wanted to expose her, he would have done it there.
"I don't know. Will you tell me?"
The way he threw the question left her no time to chase the riddle to its end — they were already at the door.
"Next time. When you need my help again."
✦✧✦✧
Later that night, when humans gave up their time for vampires to roam freely in their true shape and form, two men walked through the ancient architecture of North Wing.
Their clothes were unified in black, tailored like old-century suits but modernized to fit their occupation.
Everyone stopped what they were doing, eyes following the pair as they disappeared into the forest.
"Must be it, the place she mentioned. That girl gave pretty good directions, don't you think?" the shorter one said.
"Check the tree," the taller man replied, the same investigator that morning.
The young man approached the trunk, sniffing the air before taking one last deep breath.
"Surprisingly, I can faintly smell her. No trace of blood or clothing, though. Are we good?"
"Too perfect," the investigator said while scanning the area. "She is either a good liar or a lucky human. Check for another round."
His nose and ears were working like a radar, trying to catch any sign of an unnatural object.
Then he stopped, stomped his feet, and squatted down to the ground level.
"Come here. What do you see?" he called to his partner, who was leaning against the tree.
"The ground?" the younger one said, unimpressed. He should be out having fun, not stuck here with an ancient grandpa.
"Look closer."
The man pointed to a small flower – a white spring beauty with some pink veins, as small and insignificant as its sibling, except for one detail.
It was an ill-fated flower thrown arbitrarily. The stem and petals went askew, half-buried with torn leaves scattered nearby.
Once a flaw was spotted, others appeared. Grasses overturned, soil uneven. To most eyes, there was nothing worth a second glance, but these two knew exactly what it was.
"This place was dug up. Not long ago," the younger one said. He put his serious face back on until he realized who was going to be the digger.
"At least lend me your sunglasses, boss."
After several minutes of digging, they stood over a giant hole.
The silence was heavy.
What they found didn't need an autopsy to declare it was wrong.
At first glance, it was just a corpse: white and purple skin, touched with some greenish dots here and there. The more they looked, the more wrong it became. Eyes, nose, and mouth mixed together into a bowl of soup.
"Do I have to touch that?"
"Without a doubt."
The taller man watched, hands in his pocket, as his partner reluctantly reached in. A moment later, something metallic was pulled out – a silver dagger soaked in the liquid.
"Could this be related to the girl?"
"Hard to say." The older one took his time before he spoke again. "Witchcraft. I have seen one of these 'puppets' before, in Romania."
"Puppet?"
"Sewn dolls. Used to replicate their master. This one is dissolving, which means it has done its job."
He turned toward the distant school. Who would have thought he'd gain such a discovery at this place.
"Keep an eye on the girl," the older one said. And together, they disappeared as the first sign of dawn brushed through the trees.