Over the next couple of days, Juliet went back to the Student Group office several times. She asked the director if he remembered who he spoke to after her the first time she came in. Unfortunately, he had no idea.

“I talk to a lot of people, so sorry, I can’t remember,” he explained.

Juliet decided not to bother going back there since she had already found a student group to join. It was called the Occult’s Addict and they met every Friday night at midnight, always at a different location. They had an office and Juliet went there after class one afternoon to find out where their next meeting would be held.  

The door to their office was decorated in black paper with papier-mâché skulls attached to it. Lucky for Juliet, someone was home. The door was wide open and inside, a couple of people were talking.

She knocked and said, “Hi. Is this the Occult’s Addict club room?”

A young man and young woman were in the room. Both the boy and the girl had white-blond hair that struck Juliet as almost unnatural, but at the same time, she couldn’t spot even a millimeter of root to indicate it was bleached. The blond went right to their scalps. The girl had blue eyes surrounded by black lashes, the boy had red eyes surrounded by white lashes, and both their eyebrows were white. Maybe it was natural after all. The boy stood up to greet her.

“Hello. How can I help you?” he asked lightly.

“I am interested in this club,” Juliet explained.

“Well, come in,” he said, making room for her to enter. “Have a seat,” he indicated a bucket chair covered in an orange and black tiger print. “I’m Rylan and this is my twin sister, Taylor. She’s the treasurer and I’m the secretary.”

“Who’s the president?” Juliet asked.

“Another set of twins. Well, one is the president and the other one is the vice president. Their names are Fiona and Halona. You don’t have a twin, do you?”

“That’s not a prerequisite, is it?”

“No,” Taylor said, “But it is more fun that way. Interesting backgrounds make for interesting research.”

“What kind of research?” Juliet asked.

“Well, what sort of things are you interested in, or rather, what activities would you be interested in participating in?” Taylor continued.

“Tarot cards,” Juliet said.

Rylan laughed, “Tarot cards and horoscopes, eh? You’re a first-year, aren’t you? Please tell me you don’t have a teen girl magazine in your bag.”

“I don’t!” Juliet hotly defended. “I’m interested in other things, too.”

“Like what?”

“Vampires, crop circles, demons, psychics... you know. Those sorts of things,” she stuttered.

Rylan rolled his eyes, “Vampires, eh?” He seemed to be looking at something on the back of the club room door. Juliet couldn’t see it from where she was sitting. “Yeah, we’ve got a few people we’re investigating on campus, who we think could be vamps.”

“I saw a guy yesterday that I thought might be one.”

“Is this him?” Rylan asked as he turned his back to the door and kicked it shut. 

As the door closed, the poster on the back came into view. It was a black and white picture of the guy she had seen in the Student Group office. He wasn’t looking at the camera. It was a shot that accentuated his jaw and the vein that ran down his neck. There, in plain sight, were three perfect sets of bite marks.

“Has this photo been meddled with?” Juliet asked, getting up and touching the photograph with her fingertips.

“No,” Taylor said. 

“Is he part of this club?” Juliet continued, very excited.

“No. We house freaks, but not his kind.”

“You wouldn’t want a vampire to join you?” Juliet asked. She didn’t understand.

“If he wanted to join, we’d be thrilled to have him, but,” Rylan paused. “He wouldn’t want to. None of the people we’ve tried to recruit have ever wanted to join. They like their secrets and more than anything else, they like to pretend like there is nothing wrong with them.”

“Anyway,” Taylor interrupted. “We’re having our next meeting tomorrow night at midnight at the observatory. It’ll be a nearly full moon and we’re going to memorize the names of the craters and learn what the different phases mean when predicting the future. Do you want to come?”

Juliet’s eyes almost bugged out of her head. “Of course I want to come,” she blurted.

“Great,” Taylor said, pulling out a membership application form. “Have this filled out when you come and don’t forget the registration fee. We have to pay to rent some of the venues we have our meetings at, as well as this club room, so your fifty-dollar fee is very important to our survival as a club. Please don’t forget it.”

“Thanks,” Juliet said as she took the paper.

“We’ll look forward to seeing you,” Rylan said, opening the door for Juliet.

“Wait!” she exclaimed. “Aren’t you going to tell me who this guy is?”

Taylor shrugged. “He’s one of our pet projects. We really wouldn’t appreciate you running to him and telling him that we’ve been watching him. He probably wouldn’t like it and if he reported us, we would get in trouble with University security, if not the police, for stalking him.”

“I wasn’t going to tell him, or anyone else. If you’re investigating paranormal activities, doesn’t that involve studying people most of the time?”

Rylan smiled. “You’ve got it exactly right, Juliet. Do show up tomorrow and we’ll make you an official member. Besides, you’re interested in fortune-telling, right? Tomorrow should be right up your alley.”

“Are you sure you can’t at least tell me his name?” she begged. “I’ve been completely obsessed with him since I first saw him.”

Taylor frowned and shook her hair. “His name is Seth Halkias.”

Juliet grabbed the door and swung it so that she could see his picture again. “Seth, huh?” she said out loud, thinking of how completely captivating he looked. “Hey, can I write on this poster?” she suddenly asked. Her time spent in art class made her want to write and draw on anything that sparked her imagination.

“Go nuts,” Rylan said as he threw her a set of markers. “He’s probably just an ordinary guy who has a girlfriend with a vampire fetish.”

“I hate how you always assume that everything is commonplace and boring,” Taylor remarked.

Juliet couldn’t take her eyes off the picture of Seth. She opened the set of markers and fumbled around until she found what she wanted—the red. She uncapped the felt pen with her teeth and began coloring on the paper.

“Think she’s in love with him?” Rylan whispered behind Juliet’s back.

“If she’s not, it probably won’t be long before she is,” Taylor murmured.

Juliet didn’t care what they were saying. She finished up and stepped away from her handiwork. She hadn’t done much. She’d only colored his iris red, but in her mind, it was a vast improvement.

Taylor walked up behind Juliet and put her arm on Juliet’s shoulder. “It looks better that way. Red eyes look the best, right Rylan? I think Fiona and Halona are going to love it.”

Juliet pushed Taylor off and put the lid back on the marker. “If you ever decide that you don’t want this picture anymore, I’ll buy it.” She turned over the bottom corner and wrote her email address with the black marker.  

“How much?” Taylor asked.

Juliet looked at it. She wanted it in her dorm room so badly her mouth was watering. “A hundred,” Juliet said.

“S-O-L-D!” Rylan and Taylor said together as they playfully slapped her on the back in unison.

She should have tried to bargain more before she said that grandiose amount. Since they took the picture, they could make another copy if they wanted to.

“I’ll even gift wrap it for you, so bring the money and you can pick it up tomorrow night,” Taylor said, smiling.

“Now, you had better show up tomorrow!” 

Juliet said good-bye to the twins and headed out of the clubroom and toward the elevators. She pressed the button and ruffled her hair. Life had just gotten unexpectedly interesting.