Elijah's POV

"There was no blood was left in him when whenh he was was found. And they had been doing this to sixteen other kids so far. Like you.

"He wasn't doing anything special when it happened. Just standing near his locker. It was about to hit curfew...

"I was there with him for a moment--- he was, like, excited about being so 'special' that we got to go to a school like this... He skipped a grade, so there wasn't really a reason why we couldn't 'both attend'--- that's what the people who spoke to our parents said.

"Anyway... Vampires got to him. I'd went to the bathroom, and I just---"

I stopped for a moment, and looked Fariq in the eyes. He then stared down into his lap, picking at his nails. He said, "That it?"

I glanced up at the clock. Curfew was about to hit. We needed to get back to our dorms. "Yeah. I'm done."

He finally met my gaze. "I'm really sorry."

I blinked, and said, "It's no worry... but you got to understand---"

"School is dangerous. Vampires exist. Life is terrible. I know," he replied. "But... Does it stop? Do we get out?"

"Mm..." Before I could answer, the bell rang, and our time was up. "We gotta go. We have five minutes."

"But, why---?"

I started out the door. This guy asked too many questions.

"Lights out soon. Bad things happen to humans after dark, remember?"

And his face lit up with recognition, and he left the bathroom almost as quickly as I did. The hall was empty, because people were way smarter than us, and the creatures would emerge any time now. We sped down the hall, to the human dorms, and I led him to the 10s.

When I got him to Room 11, he asked, "Are you gonna get to the second floor in time?"

I shrugged. "Its like they say, I'm the Ghost Criminal. I could stroll if I wanted to."

He didn't look entirely convinced, but it was too late for second thoughts. I waved for him to go inside and watched as he fiddled with his keys.

I turned to go, saying, "I'll try to explain everything better tomorrow."

And all I heard was a weak, "Sure."

So I was left alone with myself, concocting worse case scenarios, asking scary questions, worrying myself to death.

The creatures were attacking earlier these days.

That was a giant bad, and I didn't know how to fix it... Well, at least fix it in a humane way, the way that didn't include, like, violence.

But I would if I had to.