Perhaps it was always bound to end this way. Perhaps from the very start this was the only way it could play out. Perhaps this was all fated right from the beginning.
I, for one, do not know. What I do know is this: by halfway through May, 1956, Shannon Malone was walking with one foot in the grave.
Antonia Guaraldi was attacked by a vampire on a Tuesday night. Shannon Malone woke up to the phone ringing at half past ten. Her mother peeked into her room ten minutes later, unsurprised to find her awake. Una had looked at her with a fear that was ancient and told her the news: Toni was in the hospital in Medula. During the time the Guaraldis had been away to watch Frankie's baseball game, Toni had been attacked by something. She had stayed home because she had not felt well. Her family had come home to find her sprawled in the living room, blood coating her neck and chest. She was only just breathing. There had been noises in the backyard, but by the time anyone got out there there was nothing to be seen. The assumption was that the family had chased away whoever it was that had done this. And not a moment too soon.
The news shook Shannon to the core. Her worlds had collided: supernatural and normal. That year, up to that point, she'd been doing her best to keep a strict division between the two; she had begun to understand why none of the Clearwater students talked about the school. It was easier to keep them split up. There was less of a chance of letting anything slip to the wrong person.
And perhaps it was Shannon's last ditch effort to hold onto some gleaming thread of disbelief.
That was no longer possible. Someoneâsomething, a vampire, Shannon had no doubtâhad tried to kill her best friend, the girl she hadn't spoken to in months. The vampires had entered her world, her safe, normal world, and she had had enough.
She wanted it over. She wanted it finished.
When she told Caleb, Dexter, Jared, Ginger, and Ollie, none of them took it well. She hadn't expected them to. But she didn't expect their help, either. She understood Allison better now. She understood the need, the driving desire to do something even if it was stupid. Something, some monster had shattered the divide between normal and not normal (realandnotreal) and had tried to take something precious from her. The fight she and Toni had gotten into seemed ridiculous now.
Caleb was the first to speak, looking at her a little like she was an animal that he was afraid would pounce.
"Shannon, you know what happened the last time we tried to hunt down the vampires."
And of course she did. She hadn't forgotten that easily. And yet she found she didn't care. It was not an earth-shattering discovery; she thought of a time a thousand years ago when she'd sat in an ice cream parlor with a boy and a girl who'd told her about a missing friend that needed to be found. In trying to find her they'd stopped and stuttered and spent a lot of time doing nothing perhaps because they were too busy, or too afraid, or perhapsâjust perhapsâbecause they had not reached that point yet. Perhaps because they knew what the cost would be.
Shannon told her friends she didn't expect them to help her. In a moment of déjà vu, she found herself having the same conversation they'd had with Allison in the infirmary in March, only she was on the other side.
"Shannon, you can't," Ginger said.
"I have to," Shannon replied. And she thought maybe, despite their protests, all of them knew that. She'd told them about what had happened to Toni. She could feel the ghost of Mabel Starkowski hanging about in the room.
"Shannon, this isâit'sâ" Jared began, gesturing wildly.
"It's crazy, I know," Shannon said. "But something tried to kill my best friend! That's crazy."
"Shannon, we canâwe can figure something outâ" Dexter said.
"Noâ"
"It doesn't have to be like thisâ"
"Butâ"
"There's got to be something elseâ"
"Don't you get it?" The strength of Shannon's voice surprised even herself. "Someone wants me dead! And I don't really think it's a coincidence that my best friend was attacked by a vampire out of all the people in this town! Hell, I don't know if anything's been a coincidence!" Her voice cracked halfway through the sentence and lost its intensity as it came to a close. She looked around helplessly at the faces of her friends, forgetting in her whirl of emotions that they were standing in the middle of the West Wing lounge and anyone could come in at any moment. Most people were at breakfast, the only thing that had kept them isolated this long. "We found Dougie Wein's skull. We tried to find the vampiresâand we did. And you know something else? They let us live. They let us live, and you all know they did, and they went after Lester Ames instead. And it justâit feels like they're taunting us now."
"What would a couple of vampires want with us?" Jared asked doubtfully, but his face was pale. "We're notâwe're just kids."
"Someone wants me dead," Shannon repeated, much quieter this time. She shrugged sadly. Jared looked at her for a long moment, then nodded, looking at the ground. "Jared, something killed your bird. I think something is after all of us."
"It's not gonna end until someone else ends it," Ollie said, so quietly that Shannon barely heard her. She bit at a fingernail.
There was no more time to talk. The bell rang, a warning that classes would begin soon. Shannon looked at her friends, melancholy touching her face and pulling her mouth into a frown. The air held an electricity that pulsed back and forth between each of them. Or perhaps that was just Mabel again.
"Class," Shannon said softly. There was nothing else to say. There was pain in the eyes of each one of them. Shannon turned, and, just as she was about leave, someone emerged from the hallway that led to the West Wing dormitories. It was Allison Groves.
For the first time since March, the seven of them were alone together.
Shannon was surprised to see Allison, despite the fact that she'd technically seen the girl every weekday all school year. But this was different; she hadn't really seen Allison since the night in March. Not in this kind of context.
That she missed the girl went without saying.
"Oh, hi," Allison said, looking just as surprised. Her gaze stuttered around the room. She must have felt the somber atmosphere, because she raised her eyebrows. "Um, hey, you guys. This...looks serious."
"Just...talking," Caleb said, after far too much time had passed. Allison looked around at the group of them, doubt clear on her face. She just nodded.
"Right." She nodded a second time for good measure.
"We...we should go," Ginger said. "We'll be late."
"Yeah," Shannon agreed. She tore her gaze away from Allison and turned the exit to the West Wing lounge. "Right."
None of them said a word as they walked to their first class. They barely acknowledged each other at all.
***
Tuly Lewis was having perhaps the worst school year possible. It really came to a head when she passed out in math class.
Shannon had missed out on much of the drama surrounding the girl, mostly because she lived at home. She learned everything secondhand from other students, most notably Caleb, and Allison back before she did her vanishing act. But hearing about it was a lot different from experiencing it. It was only by happenstance that Shannon noticed how truly weathered Tuly looked on that particular day. She looked tired and almost...old. Like she'd lived a thousand lives and each one of them had been worse than the last.
It was almost unsurprising when, without warning, she slumped out of her desk and crashed to the ground.
Professor Stone was at her side in the blink of an eye. The classroom erupted into instant chaos, every student trying to get a glimpse of the girl and figure out what was going on. Frantically, Professor Stone instructed Henry Turner, one of the students, to go fetch Miss Winters. Tuly had already regained consciousness, or a kind of consciousness, at least; she was speaking, but her words were slurred and mostly incoherent. Her eyes were only a fraction of the way open. She dug her heels into the ground, but whether she was attempting to stand or just making involuntary movement was anyone's guess. The only words from Tuly's mouth that Shannon was able to discern were 'Hear it?'
Henry Turner finally returned with Miss Winters, and Tuly was whisked away for another stay in the infirmary. Math class was cut short. Shannon found she had no love whatsoever for the look Miss Winters gave Tuly when she first entered the room. It was like she was viewing a corpse.
Shannon, Caleb, Ginger, Ollie, Jared, and Dexter found themselves outside the infirmary after the school day was over by some unspoken agreement. They did not talk about the conversation they had had that morning. They barely talked at all. The subject was whirring around in the back of Shannon's mind, but she forced it out of her thoughts. If she had to, she could deal with it after seeing Tuly.
Before any of them got the chance to enter the infirmary, Allison Groves came barreling out, highly reminiscent of the scene that morning. She froze when she saw them, surprised and almost embarrassed.
"Oh, um...hi again," she said, giving a weak wave. She was fidgeting awkwardly, something that didn't sit right with Shannon.
"Geez, Al, I've seen you more today than I have in months," Caleb said. All the tension melted right out of Allison's body.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she said, waving an impatient hand. "I've been...doing stuff. And don't call me 'Al.'"
"Doing stuff," Caleb said with a snort, rolling his eyes. Allison flushed, a disgruntled look crossing her face, but she didn't say anything.
"What are you doing here?" Ginger asked curiously.
"Oh, I, uh..." Allison looked all directions, like she was scared someone might pop up out of nowhere and overhear. The flush on her cheeks got worse. "I just...wanted to, uh...see how Tuly was doing."
She finished her sentence with her gaze cast towards the ground.
"Careful, Allison, someone might think you care," Jared said.
"Oh, hush up," Allison said, her words lacking any real heat. She crossed her arms and looked around at the group of them. She quirked an eyebrow, a challenge. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Same as you," Shannon replied, fully aware that Allison already knew that. A triumphant blaze lit up Allison's eyes.
"Someone might think you care," Allison parroted back, looking far too pleased with herself. Slowly, her smugness faded away, and she looked uncertainly over her shoulder. "But, um, I wouldn't go in there yet."
"Why not?" Shannon asked.
"Um..." Allison's face made Shannon nervous. Her lips were pulled into a thin frown and her eyes were swimming with concern. "Dr. Kenfield's in there. He's, um...well I don't know. I guess he's checking up on her."
Ollie blanched. "Dr. Kenfield?"
Shannon wrung her hands. "Isn't he...like a coroner?"
"Not...exactly," Ollie said, but it didn't sound very convincing when she looked like she was going to throw up.
"You mean...?" Ginger said, eyes so wide it would have comical in any other situation.
"No, no," Allison said quickly. "I mean, I don't think so. I don't think she's conscious, but she's still...alive. They're just...checking up on her, I guess. Trying to figure out what's wrong. That's my guess, at least."
"Do you...think she's gonna be okay?" Ginger asked hesitantly.
"Please. She wouldn't give up on irritating me that easily." Allison's voice trembled on the last word. Shannon pretended she didn't notice.
"What do you think is wrong with her?" Dexter asked.
"What isn't wrong with her?" Allison shot back, but it was obvious her heart wasn't in it. Dexter leveled her with a glare, and she looked at her shifting feet. "I don't know. She's had a bad year, but never like this. She looks...pretty awful."
Everyone knew Allison meant it; it wasn't a deflective insult.
"I'm...worried." She said it like she had to physically force the word out, and her lips twisted like she'd swallowed a lemon, but it was obvious it was true. She hopped from one foot to the other, as if she were on scalding ground.
"I have a terrible idea," Ollie said, twirling a red strand of hair around her finger.
"Oh, good," Caleb said. "We do our best work with terrible ideas."
Ollie blushed. "Well, I was just thinking...if we want to know what's wrong with Tuly, we could just ask Dr. Kenfield when he comes out."
"You're right, that is a terrible idea," Jared said.
"I didn't promise you anything," Ollie said.
"Well, wait, wait, wait," Allison said, so fast it ended up sounding more like 'waywayway.' "It is a terrible idea. But it's worth a shot."
Jared stared at her. "He's never gonna tell us."
Allison shrugged. She was looking at Ollie with a strange expression, one that Shannon could not determine the meaning of. Ollie was pointedly not meeting her eyes. Thoughtfully, Allison said, "Why not? We're the concerned friends."
"Is that what we are?" Caleb asked doubtfully.
"Sure," Allison said, nodding furiously. "And concerned students, too. We deserve to know what's going on. We have to protect ourselves."
"If you're gonna say that to him," Caleb said, unimpressed, "then he's definitely never gonna tell us."
"Ha ha ha," Allison said dryly. Her sneer was petulant and so very Allison that it was refreshing. "Anyway, we don't have anything to lose. We're kids. Aren't we supposed to always be sticking our noses into other people's business?"
"That's something someone with eleven siblings would say," Jared said. Allison scoffed and flicked her hand.
"She's got a point, though," Shannon said carefully. "Can't hurt."
That, of course, was a lie. It could hurt: Dr. Kenfield could tell them exactly what they wanted to know. Caleb caught Shannon's eyes, his face grim. There was a slight questioning tilt to his gaze, but Shannon thought he already knew the answer to the question he was asking.
"Oh, I shouldn't have said anything," Ollie said, frowning.
"Too late now, Lil Red," Caleb said under his breath, his eyes never leaving Shannon's face. Ollie took her bottom lip in between her teeth, gnawing anxiously. Shannon tore her gaze away from Caleb's and looked to Allison, who was still watching Ollie with that bizarre, unnamable expression.
It was another five minutes or so before Dr. Kenfield emerged from the infirmary. He took in their group in surprise that he quickly masked. Shannon noticed that up this close the bags under his eyes seemed really quite terrible, almost like they were bruises. She wondered how a person could get that tired.
"Dr. Kenfield," Allison said immediately.
Kenfield nodded; the movement was stiff, almost awkward. His mind was obviously elsewhere. "Hello, kids."
Shannon had never heard him speak before. She was surprised to find he had a slight British accent.
"Dr. Kenfield," Allison repeated, stepping in front of him, blocking his path. Kenfield's eyes flickered to her like he was surprised she was still there. Allison smiled, and Shannon recognized it as fake ingratiation. She wondered if Kenfield was fooled.
"How can I help you?" Kenfield asked.
"We were just wondering...is Tuly gonna be okay?" Shannon had to hand it to Allison: she was a good actress. She looked appropriately concerned, not at all like she had any ulterior motives. It was something Toni Guaraldi was always good at, too. That thought shot a painful bolt of lightning straight to Shannon's heart.
Toni would be fine.
Kenfield looked at Allison with traces of sympathy. "I'm quite confident that she'll be all right." Like an afterthought, he added, "As long as she's kept under supervision."
"What's wrong with her?" Allison asked, a perfectly innocent segue. Completely natural. Kenfield looked at her dubiously anyway.
"I'm afraid I can't divulge that information," he said. He made as if to leave, but Allison was not so easily deterred.
"Please, Dr. Kenfield," Allison urged. "I'mâwe're all worried about her. We just wanna be sure she's gonna be okay."
"I can assure you," Kenfield said, "she'll be just fine. But I'm afraid I can't discuss her conditionâit wouldn't be appropriateâ"
"We're just worried, is all," Allison pressed. "After everything that's happened this year."
Shannon was a little surprised to realize that Dr. Kenfield was hesitating. His eyes were clouded in turmoil, and what was more: he was not looking at Allison. He was looking at Ollie, and small, shy Ollie was looking back at him like she was trying to tell him something with just her eyes. It occurred to Shannon for the first time that perhaps Ollie knew the good doctor better than she had first thought.
"I really can'tâ" Dr. Kenfield did not finish his thought; he merely turned away from the group, ready to be on his way. Shannon figured that that was the end of it, and then Ollie stepped forward.
"William, please," she said quietly. Shannon blinked. No one else in the group seemed surprised.
Agonizingly slowly, Kenfield turned back to the group. He beheld Ollie with a quirked eyebrow, but an otherwise neutral expression. Ollie held his gaze, but she fidgeted anxiously. Her fingers twisted in the fabric of her skirt and her feet shuffled across the floor.
"I might have known it would be you and your friends causing all the trouble," Kenfield said quietly. He looked around at the group of them. "That's it, isn't it? You're the ones who found the skull?"
There was a short pause before Allison said meekly, "Yes, sir."
Kenfield nodded like he'd known the answer the whole time. He looked at Allison more closely. "And you're the one whose birthday it was the day of the cow head incident."
It was not a question, but Allison nodded. Kenfield looked at her for another long moment, and then Shannon found his gaze settled on her. His eyes were deep blue and haunted and they picked her whole being apart. Shannon understood why Ollie was having trouble holding his gaze.
"And you're the one who's in a bit of trouble," he said thoughtfully, nodding his head. Shannon clenched her right fist.
"Not anymore," she said before she could stop herself. "You fixed that. Didn't you?"
Kenfield gave her a wry smile. "How was your lemonade?"
Shannon inhaled sharply through her nose. She could just remember somethingâa tingle in her throat and her nose when she took of sip of her drink the night of the banquet. She looked at Kenfield with wide eyes.
"How did youâ?"
"I should have known you'd find yourself in the middle of this, Miss O'Brien." Kenfield looked back at Ollie as if he hadn't heard Shannon speak at all. Ollie looked down at her hands, scuffing a shoe across the floor. A bit helplessly, she shrugged.
Kenfield's gaze softened then, and Shannon was amazed to realize he was going to tell them. She wasn't sure how she knew, and she wasn't sure what had convinced him, but she could tell that it was going to happen. She thought the rest of the group realized it too; Allison was holding her breath expectantly, obviously trying to look nonchalant.
"Nothing you hear leaves this group, do you understand me?" Kenfield asked, looking harshly at each one of them.
"Yes, sir," Allison said immediately.
Kenfield looked around, hesitating. "I suppose there's no sense sugarcoating it. Not with the likes of you. I'm sure Headmistress Lea has already talked to the student body about the likelihood of a vampire being on the loose?"
Allison nodded, repeating, "Yes, sir."
Kenfield nodded himself. "I was sure she had. Well, based on Miss Lewis's current condition, I think it very likely the process of turning has begun."
The air turned to ice around them. Shannon looked around at her friends, hoping that didn't mean what she thought it did.
"T-turning, sir?" Allison asked. "As in...turning into a vampire?"
"Yes," Kenfield said simply.
"But...but..." Allison looked beseechingly around at the group. Shannon didn't know what to say; she couldn't find any words. "You saidâyou mean she's...she's turning into a vampire?"
"I said she'd be fine, didn't I?" Kenfield said dryly. "We've caught it in time. With proper supervision, she should be just fine. She has lost a lot of blood."
"You only turn into a vampire if you bleed out," Ollie said quietly, mostly to herself. Kenfield looked at her in vague surprise.
"Yes," he said. "Precisely."
"But...but you mean a vampire has been trying to turn her?" Ginger said. "Butâwhen? She was just in class when she collapsedâ"
"I believe this has been going on for a while now," Kenfield said. "From what I understand, that used to happen often in cases of vampire turnings. The time of the turning was spread out through the length of weeksâsometimes even monthsâso as to give more time for...'bonding,' shall we say, between the vampire and the victim."
"That's why she's been so sick lately," Allison said. She looked pale. "She was...oh, hell."
"Holy smokes," Caleb agreed.
"Well, as I've said," Kenfield began matter-of-factly, "with the proper supervision, Miss Lewis should be just fine. Now remember: not a word."
"Of course, Dr. Kenfield," Ollie said. Kenfield nodded, satisfied, and once again made as if to leave. Ollie stopped him a second time. "Wait, Dr. Kenfield...you said...you said that vampire turnings used to take weeks or months. Used to. What...what do you mean?"
When Kenfield looked at her, there was something ancient in his eyes. "Well, as far as I know, no one has seen a vampire in nearly seventy years."
"And now?" Ollie asked.
"I think you'll find a very persuasive case can be made that there has to be one here now in our midst." He gave her a smile that would perhaps have been comforting in other circumstances. "Don't let it worry you. The Administration is doing good work to ensure that the school and all the students are safe."
If Shannon didn't know any better, she would've said the last part was sarcastic.
"Now, I suppose I'm not supposed to be talking about this sort of thing with you," Kenfield continued. "If you'll excuse me."
He really did leave then. Shannon watched him go, resolve cementing itself in her body and her bones.
"I want to kill them," Shannon said. She figured even Allison knew what she meant. "I swear to God I do."
***Well, I finally got someone to finish reading the whole thing, so it's full steam ahead, I guess. Or something. Now to see how you guys like my incoherent ramblings. As always, thanks to everyone who voted and commented :)***