All these thoughts were just a bother at this time, for now he should check his body and think of an excuse for his damaged shirt. He went to the bathroom to use the mirror upon which he saw the small bite marks left on his neck. He tore a portion of his shirt to make a makeshift bandage to hide the marks and departed the school for his home.

He rushed upstairs as quickly as possible so that he didn’t have to interact with anyone before he could change and properly hide the mark. However, before he could make it to the safe zone that was his bedroom he was stopped by his brother who was coming out of his own room at what was the worse time possible.

“Whoa what’s the rush little bro?” Alexander’s brother asked given how quickly they almost collided. 

“Alistar! Ah, I just had to change as soon as possible since I had to use the bathroom terribly.” Alexander nervously said.

“Is that so.” Alistar skeptically replied while examining Alexander’s current state, noticing the bandage and the damaged clothing, “And what happened to your uniform that you needed to change so badly?”

That dreaded question sent shivers down Alexander’s spine, he knew there was no way he could get by his brother’s perception with any simple excuse. Though they were virtually identical, from similar hair and skin color, to the fact that they both wanted to become investigators. The only differences were that Alistar was taller, his hair was less grown out than Alexander’s, his eyes were black like his hair and of course the fact that he was two years older.

“I was in a fight after school.” Alexander replied and looked away from Alistar and tried to walk by but was grabbed.

“I see, and why the bandage? Were you stabbed or something?” Alistar asked.

“I just got scratched.” He replied and yanked his hand away, “You made my shoulder hurt again, I will see you at dinner.”

With those parting words he left his brother alone and entered the confines of his bedroom. He pressed his back against the door and wiped away some stray tears that came as a result of having to lie like that. After a few minutes he changed into a more comfortable outfit and made his way to the nearest bathroom so that he could examine himself.

Once the makeshift bandage was removed and the wound was examined Alexander let out a sigh of relief. This was because the first sign of injection that he was taught, the presence of visible and pulsating blood vessels around the injection site, was absent. He took some peroxide from the medicine cabinet and disinfected the wound, wincing at the brief pain, and applied a proper bandage to cover the marks.

It was ironic that it was only now that he felt relief about the whole thing since between the time of injection he would have already gone through two out of the three stages. With the rapid healing of the marks themselves being the second sign themselves of infection. He went back to his room and collapsed into his bed to take a nap.

Alexander’s nap was only concluded when he was awakened by a knocking at his door. With drowsy eyes he looked out his window and saw that it was now dusk, and the one knocking was his mother whose shouts were telling him dinner was ready. He groaned and rolled to the edge of the bed to answer the door but before his feet could touch the ground a thought flashed into his head. Could he really face his parents? Most certainly Alistar would bring up the bandage at the table where he couldn’t run.

“HURRY UP AND GET OUT HERE ALEXANDER!” His mother shouted and slammed her fist into the door.

“I will be down in just a second!” He quickly replied and jumped off his bed out of fright.

“You better, leaving your mother standing here for how long.” His mother grumbled.

“I’m sorry okay, I will be done after putting on pants.” Alexander said and slowly approached the door to listen.

Alexander heard his mother’s grumbling growing more distant along with her footsteps. In the span of a single day he’s had to feel a sense of relief to often, this isn’t a normal thing for anyone. Given that he didn’t want to incur anymore of her wrath he quickly left his room for the unavoidable awkwardness. The moment he turned the corner he saw his mother plating the food and his brother and father having a conversation. All eyes were placed upon him the moment that he was spotted and they didn’t leave him even as he sat at the table.

“I assume your shoulder is feeling better now?” Alistar asked while glaring at him directly in the eyes.