“Now, August,” she sat down on the couch, “I know you’re an adult, but I didn’t invite you here to sneak out in the middle of the night while you should be resting. Or for you to lock yourself in the bathroom while you…pleasure yourself.” I looked down at my lap in even more shame than I already felt. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, August, but time and place.” Dr. Chase sighed, “Please talk to me, August. Where were you?”

“I’m…I’m sorry,” I said, unable to look her in the eye. “I…” I pressed my palms into my eyes, taking a deep breath. It was all I could do to not withdraw into my hoodie. “I went…to see M-Malachai…”

“How come?” She asked, settling into her work persona. I could imagine her posture, legs crossed, hands folded over her knee. “Is he the reason you’re acting like a teenager again?”

I nodded, keeping my hands over my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see her judging eyes. “He…I…Dr. Chase, I think…I might be having the start…of a psychotic episode.”

She made a little noise. “What makes you think that?”

“Because!” I said without thinking. I composed myself, trying to get my thoughts in order. I covered my ears as a burst of pain bloomed inside them, digging its way to my jaw. “This might sound a little…cra—um…” I squeezed my eyes shut. “I went to see Malachai…because he’s a…vamp…a vamp-vampire…and I thought…he could help me.”

Anticipating her next question, I removed my hood. I felt her hover around me, hands moving in to touch my head or neck, only to stop a few inches before she made contact. “August, what…what happened to you?”

“I don’t know.” I felt tears prick my eyes. “He said he would help me…and he’s the only one I c-can rely on for this…because-because if I try to c-call my m-mom she won’t pick up.”

“Okay. Okay, take a deep breath.” She placed a hand on my shoulder, and I opened my eyes. I followed her instructions, inhaling and exhaling until my tears stopped. “Do you want to call your mom? She might pick up from my phone.” She dug her cellphone out of her pant’s pocket, holding it out for me to take.

Wiping my eyes, I took her phone from her and dialed my mother’s phone number. I listened to the line ring, my slight hope of her answering being crushed the longer the line rang. My hope rose when I heard the line click and her voice, “Moshimoshi? Hello?” She said with a heavy accent.

It took me a few minutes for me to find my voice, all the while she asked who was calling in Japanese and broken, accented English. When she told me she was going to hang up, I blurted out, “A-Aki desu. It’s Aki.” I paused, waiting for her to hang up at the mention of my name. I grew a little confident, her staying on the line. “Ano…Mom, I’m…growing h-horns…and I d-don’t know w-what to do about it.”

“I know nothing about that,” she said, and I heard the line click dead.

Dr. Chase put a band-aid over Malachai’s bite mark and washed the blood out of my hair with rubbing alcohol. She let me have some time alone at my insistence. I spent it staring at my phone when my eyes didn’t sting from the little light that seeped through the curtains. I knew my mother wouldn’t call me back, nor text me, and she certainly wouldn’t pick up if I called her from my phone. I slept when I could, feeling my horns push the hood of my hoodie away from my head. It felt the more I slept, the faster my horns were growing in. I didn’t even want to know if my black eyes had fully turned red.

Once my hood felt uncomfortable, I didn’t want Dr. Chase to look at me. I didn’t want her judging me for things I didn’t even understand. She had to, though, to change my bandages and clean the blood from my hair. I kept checking my phone, hoping for a text or call from Malachai, to at least figure out why it was this was happening to me. I wallowed in pain and self-pity until I remembered I still had work to do on my dissertation.

I got up a little too fast, the room spinning around me as I packed up my things. I dug around one of my bags for a beanie. I caught sight of them in a mirror during my hurrying, they were too conspicuous with just my hood up. My eyes had turned blood red, but I had a sinking feeling my transformation wasn’t complete. I pulled my beanie down as far as it’d go before pulling my hood back up and grabbing my things. I thanked Dr. Chase quickly on my way out.

I stumbled over my bags on the sidewalk, trying to grab my cellphone from my pocket when I felt it buzz. I pulled it from my sweatpants, seeing a text from an unknown number. All it said was “I found something.” I could only assume it was Malachai. Standing in the middle of the busy sidewalk, I thought if I had the strength to go back to my dorm before heading to Malachai’s apartment. It didn’t take me long to decide on my course of action.

Holding my phone tight in my hand, I made my way to Malachai’s apartment. My jaw started to hurt during my walk. I kept clenching it and grinding my teeth to see if that made any difference. It only made it hurt more; I kept my mouth awkwardly open. If I continued to move my jaw the pain was tolerable. I climbed the stairs of his building, feeling my jaw and teeth as I waited for him outside his apartment door. I wondered if he needed more blood, or if he would drink from me if I asked him. Maybe he felt the same way I did but didn’t wish to scare me off. I slapped those thoughts out of me, regretting it a moment later when the bloom of pain moved through my skull.

He opened the door, hair wet, glasses off and half dressed. I wiped my mouth, thinking I might be drooling over another image for my new-found fantasies. He squinted, face growing a little red. He slammed the door shut, opening it a moment later with a sweater on and his glasses pushed up his nose. “August, hi.” He opened the door wider. “Come in. Have…Have you had breakfast yet?” I told him I hadn’t, but I was alright as he let me in. “Are you…going somewhere?”

I glanced at my duffel bag slung over my shoulder. “No.” I gave him a quick explanation of what was with my bags. “What is it you found?”

He took my bags from me, setting them down by his couch. He sat me at his table, placing a cup of coffee in front of me, then wandered around looking for something. I asked him if he needed my help, but he just smiled and told me he was alright. I massaged my jaw while I watched him, feeling how sore a few of my teeth were. Finally, he sat down next to me, his leg almost touching mine. I started thinking about that night I went to him asking for help. He opened his laptop, massaging his bottom lip while clicking at his trackpad. I touched my lip, remembering the brief sensation of our lips touching.

“Okay,” he said, bringing me out of my thoughts. His arm touched mine as he moved his laptop between us. It lingered awhile. “I found this forum, I’m not sure it’s all true…but it’s something.” He clicked through a few things “I found this post.” He sat back so I could read it.

It was from an account called Mishas_Slave on a site that looked like Reddit but was different in an unnerving way. Dr. Hristov, the post read, (How Summoners Brought About the Existence of Exorcists; Mages, Cults, and 1920s New England) is doing research on non-Western magickals. If you’re from the eastern hemisphere, whether living there or not, and are interested in being interviewed please contact us here. It ended with an email address. “I sent an email but haven’t heard back…” He trailed off, pushing his glasses up as he switched tabs. “I mean…I just heard back from him.” Malachai rested his cheek in the palm of his hand, reading the email out to me. “‘Dear Mr. Luca, Dr. Hi…Hr-rist-ov is very interested in you and your friend and would like to meet you in person. Please email me back when the most convenient time you two can come to Marades, Maine is. If you need transportation and/or accommodations we can make those for you.’”

I put my head on the table, feeling a tentative hand over my hood. “I have schoolwork.” Malachai started to stroke my head. “I can’t go to Maine, I haven’t even spoken with my advisor in weeks.”

“What about a weekend?” He asked, then followed it up with, “I don’t want to force you to go, but I think this is the best lead you have to figure out why you’re…growing horns.” When I didn’t lift my head, he stopped moving his hand and placed his own head on the table, looking at me with his glasses nestled in his hair. “I don’t…I don’t know you can get much work done if you have to hide your horns all the time. Maybe…Maybe he knows how to get rid of them.”

I heaved a sigh and pulled up my phone. The days in my calendar weren’t registering in my head, but it was a welcome enough distraction from how close his face was to mine. I looked at the first date that didn’t have events crammed into the tiny space. “Thursday,” I said. “We can go Thursday.”

Malachai picked up his head, typed out a response, then clicked a few things. “Do you…um, do you have a place to stay?” He didn’t look at me as he spoke.

I cursed under my breath when I realized I couldn’t waltz back to my dorm and walk around the bathroom with horns sticking out of my head. Even if I wore a beanie, the tips of the horns could be seen poking against the fabric. I didn’t want to dodge a conversation about that, and I couldn’t even pretend I knew no English. I hated those floor meetings where I had to pretend I cared about anything other than getting my doctorate and returning home. “Not really…” I pulled the drawstrings of my hood. “I…might’ve shown Dr. Chase the horns…and I don’t want to put any more shock on her, right now.”

“You can stay here,” he said, “for as long as you need to. I won’t get in your way, and you can sleep on the couch, or you can sleep on the bed, and I’ll sleep on the couch…” He took a breath, and if I didn’t stop him now he wouldn’t stop talking on his own.

“I’ll stay,” I said into the table. I started to massage my jaw as another thrum of pain shot through my teeth.