All of a sudden, the alarm of her purple Swatch Watch started beeping. She looked down and it was flashing an error code. She fumbled with all the buttons until she got it to silence itself. She tried to get it back to the time and date, but failed. It was as if the world didn’t want her to know what day it was, and how long she’d been sleeping for. It was a small piece to the large puzzle she was desperately trying to figure out.

Feeling hopeless, she took the watch off and threw it off the edge of the banister, waiting to hear it fall and break into pieces. She waited and waited but it never hit the ground. She realized how far up she must be. She looked over the balcony and saw her watch miraculously travelling back towards her from the depths of the stairwell. Confused and frightened, she began blinking her eyes as if she were seeing things. It was coming at a fast pace and then stopped as it got to her level and hovered there, waiting for her to take it. She saw a string attached to the watch and a small white note dangling from that string. She reached out and grabbed the watch, clasping onto it as if it were a family heirloom. She pulled the string towards her as the note travelled closer. The outside read her name in small script letters. She opened the note and began to read:

One mustn’t discard outside personal property in this castle. You never know who might pick it up and you never know what clues it could give our enemy.

The ominous note ended abruptly and wasn’t signed by anyone. Taken aback by this, she folded it and stuffed it into her pocket as if it never happened. She felt as if she were being followed or watched, and that scared the crap out of her. Her adrenaline kicked in and she started bolting up the remaining steps.

She reached the top and saw five identical doors, each thick, tall wooden doors with iron bars on them. Her head flipped around as she looked back and forth between all the doors and then back to the slab. She saw an X marked on the map over the third door and headed over to it, slowly looking behind her as she walked towards it. The tower was silent and the only sounds were those of her breath and her feet tiptoeing closer and closer to the large arched door. As she neared close enough to the door to touch it, she felt scared out of her mind. She couldn’t bring herself to knock on the door and wasn’t sure if she was making the right decision. She had been creped out way too much for one day and wondered if coming to the North Tower was a huge mistake.

She took a few steps back and stood there, contemplating her next move. Her body and breath grew still and silent as she stood there, debating her decision. Feeling in her heart that she had made the wrong choice, she quickly and quietly started turning back towards the steps. As she put her foot out to walk, the force came back and propelled her body in the direction of the third door.

Figuring it was a sign; she lifted her hand, and began knocking softly on the door. She waited.

But nobody came. She lifted her hand to the door again, and this time knocked louder, figuring that Matilda, or whoever was inside, just didn’t hear her first knock. She listened and it was as silent as before. No sign of life at all in the North Tower. Next, she lifted both of her hands up and was about to pound loudly on the door when she felt a strong and cold boney hand tapping her on her shoulder.

Chapter Three

Rachel wheeled and was startled to see a girl standing there, in the shadows. She screamed and then said, “Who are you?”

The girl stared back at her, silent at first, shaking her head as if to say, how dare you ask who I am.

“You came all this way to see me and now you’re asking who I am?” the girl muttered.

“Matilda?” she asked, looking at her, realizing she was the spitting image of Benji in girl form.

“Um, yeah. Isn’t that why you’re here knocking on my door?”

Surprised by her rudeness, Rachel decided to put down her defenses and wait to see what she would say next.

Looking down at her watch, Matilda said, “You’re late! The first session has already begun—and you can’t miss it.”

Matilda reached out and grabbed Rachel’s hand and dragged her down the winding staircase. In the distance Rachel could hear loud bells ringing, and then, after a moment of silence, cannons going off.

Matilda took her by the hand and pulled her through a large foyer, which opened out onto a vast balcony with columns and marble steps going down onto a giant football-sized field of grass.

“Get in line!” Matilda whispered, as she pushed her out onto the field. “I’ll be waiting here for you when the session is over.”

Rachel walked over to join the line of ten or so people on the field all, facing the coach, who wore a black-and-white striped uniform. He looked like the umpire from AHS football games. The group was in the middle of stretching and she quickly joined them, doing exactly as they did. Nobody was out of line and everyone was listening intently to the coach.

“Now young vampires, we will practice Mind Vision,” the coach yelled out. “See that pack of deer over there?” he pointed into the woods. “We will now each coax a deer out into the field with the power of our minds.”

Standing there, feeling like an idiot for not knowing what Mind Vision was, she watched as the others focused on their pray. Watching them draw the deer closer, she suddenly got a hunger pang stronger than she’d ever felt before. Her mouth started to salivate and her face began to drip beads of sweat. She stared at her deer and opened her eyes wide. The deer turned sharply and stared back at her as if under a spell. It started walking out of the woods slowly and then as she focused harder and harder on coaxing the deer out, it began to pick up speed until it was galloping full force towards her.

When it got to the edge of the field, she blinked her eyes and the deer stopped moving. She looked around at her peers and saw that they too had stopped using Mind Vision and were waiting for the next instructions from the coach.

She couldn’t bear it anymore. All she could think about was charging after that deer and sinking her teeth into its neck. She couldn’t understand where this was all coming from, but it felt so natural to her, like she’d been doing it her whole life.

“I would imagine you are all feeling a bit weak and hungry inside?” the coach said. “A side effect of Mind Vision on animals is that you suddenly get an urge to feed. Now, I know most of you have never fed on anything before, so let this be your first go at it. I’ll wait here, and use your instincts at the prey that awaits you,” he said as he pointed towards the pack of deer waiting on the edge of the field.

All of a sudden the young vampires all started charging at their prey. Rachel’s feet began to move quicker and quicker as she started towards her deer. She felt a surge of energy as her stride became wider, then began to think about what would happen once she got close enough to the deer. She suddenly didn’t know how to proceed as she felt her feet slip out from beneath her as she fell face first onto the ground.

“Rachel!” yelled the coach. “Come here, now!”

She pulled herself to her feet and began walking back towards the other end of the field. She turned her head over her shoulder to see that the others were diving into their prey, tearing the deer apart limb by limb and sucking out their blood. She saw the red blood dripping down their bodies and wished she could be over there, too.

“Rachel! Faster!” the coach yelled out.

“Coming!” she yelled back as she quickened her pace.

As she approached him, she could see him looking at her disapprovingly. She hesitantly walked up to him and waited to see what he had to say.

“The reason that you fell is because you tried to run with your feet, and you tried to chase the deer with your body. You are still stuck on a physical level. What you fail to realize is that your body will always fail you. You don’t catch a deer with your body, you catch it with you mind. The more that you try to will yourself to achieve something, the less you will. What you need to realize is that there is no separation between you and the deer. In the physical world there is separation, but in the spiritual world, there is none. Don’t chase the deer, feel the deer. Don’t try to run after it. Let your legs carry you there. See it in your mind, and it will be.”

He stopped speaking and looked at her in silence, waiting for her to comprehend his lesson.

The coach stared back, pointed towards the woods, and sternly said, “Try again!”

She turned her body to face the deer again, which had migrated back into the woods. She began with Mind Vision and pulled the deer back out into the open. She felt a surge run through her body which she had never felt before. She didn’t stop to think about, knowing that could be the difference between her achieving her goals and remaining a novice vampire forever. She let her legs carry her quickly towards the deer.

Her body seemed to morph into warp animal speed as she leapt across the field at a pace she never knew she could achieve. She felt her long sharp fangs begin to protrude as she leapt onto the deer. She sank her long fangs into the deer’s neck and killed it.

It fell to the ground as she kneeled beside, it draining the blood into her wide-open mouth. The taste of the blood hitting her tongue was better than anything she had tasted before and the feeling of the excess blood dripping out of her mouth was like heaven to her.

When she finished licking the blood off the final leg bone, she turned to see all the other young vampires had already finished, and were back in line where they had started. She had become so entranced by her first feeding, she didn’t stop to realize that everyone was waiting for her, watching her as she tasted her first victim.

The coach looked over at her and yelled, “Let’s go Rachel, we don’t have all day here.”

Jumping to her feet she yelled back, “Coming, sorry!”

She ran back and stood in line next to another girl about her age with black curly hair, hazel brown eyes and pale skin. The girl looked over at her, looked her up and down and then smiled at her. Suddenly, Rachel felt like she might have a friend at this place. She didn’t quite know who these other people were, or why they were here, but she didn’t question it at that moment; she enjoyed the friendly exchange and smiled back.