The next day, Noddy banged on the door of the school's News Room. The newsletter was only one sheet, but it was double-sided most days... an exposé on the 'Blood Drive' could expose the whole sha-bang, and bring it down. They might even call it 'Bloodgate'! And everyone would know that Nadal Cortez was the one who saved the school. It had been a full day since Noddy escaped detention, and the girl in the red had not been returned.
Ji-a answered the door. "What do YOU want?" Duri was close behind. They were working on the school paper together.
Noddy checked their necks... no marks of any kind. They didn't look like vampires, either. Maybe it was because their mom was a teacher. Either Mrs. Chun-Gang was protecting them, or the vamps didn't want to risk getting caught.
He swallowed his fears. "There's something terrible going on in the school... something big. We have to print it, get the word out."
Duri frowned. "Something worse than you? Now I know you're lying."
Ji-a kept quiet. Noddy reached out to her, and begged, "Please... you have to believe me."
She asked him, "Did you really survive a two-story drop?"
"As of yesterday, yeah." Noddy said proudly.
"Is your dad a baseball star?" Duri jabbed.
"No, he's a deadbeat and I've never seen his face. I just didn't wanna bum everyone out, or sound like a mama's boy."
They narrow their eyes at him.
Ji-a squeaked, "That's... understandable. I forgive y-"
"Not so fast," Duri butted in. "Are you really a knight? Did you really fight Vlad?"
"I'm about to make both of those come true, cause Vlad's exactly who I'm after. Yesterday, I saw him-"
"Okay, so you DID lie. One more thing," Duri interjected. "What are our favourite colors? Our birthdays? Where are we from? Which sports do we play after school?"
"What?" Noddy threw his hands up. "How am I supposed to know that stuff?"
"Because," Ji-a whispered, "we tell you all the time. And you always say... that you're listening."
Noddy fell silent. Duri tried to shut the door, but he jammed his foot in. "Listen," he grunted, "Vlad abducted a girl! And there's more vampires doing it, too! They call it the Blood Drive – it's a lottery, to see who gets to bite and who gets bitten. Almost the whole student body has been attac-"
"Oh, come on!" Duri yelled. "That's the worst lie you've ever told! Everyone knows Vlad got caught last fall, and he's taking iron supplements. His girlfriend hasn't been bitten since."
"Yeah, but-"
Just then, Mr. Carisol rounded the corner. He seemed to recognize Noddy, but he wasn't quite certain. He was almost a hundred meters away, but his pace was quick.
"Let me in! I promise, I'll listen to you!" he groveled.
"And?" said Duri.
"And I'll give you both a kiss?" Noddy guessed.
"That works for me," said Ji-a.
"Ew, no!" said Duri. "We want you to make it up to our mom! You scared the shit out of her, she could have died!"
"I will! I promise!"
Just as Mr. Carisol had almost come close enough to determine Noddy's face, Duri swung open the door and Noddy fell in. Mr. Carisol put up his hand, but shook his head and walks away.
"Now," Duri demanded, "tell us about this stupid 'Vampire Lottery' or whatever."
And so, he did. He pointed out the oddities of a group that preferred to stay indoors, and wore sunglasses all the time... even on cloudy days. How the addiction came from Vlad at first, then spread... his bad example slowly corrupting the other minds; the vampires were bored off their asses, and looking for any kind of stimulation or actualization.
Duri and Ji-a nodded along. Duri questioned him. "This is sounding like a complex, fantastical allegory for drugs, like... I don't know, alcohol during the prohibition. Or... homosexuality. Do you hate gay people, Mr. Cortez?"
"What? No! I'm bisexual myself," he defended. "I've even kissed a dude, once."
"You mean to say," Ji-a carried, "that we could potentially watch you make out with another hot guy?"
"Uh... yeah? Sure, I guess?" he answered, confused.
"No further questions from me," Ji-a concluded with a lip smack.
Noddy shook his head down to his shoulders. This was going in a weird direction so far.
"How can we prove it?" Duri asked, pointing her pen at him.
"We catch him in the act, snap some pics, grab some testimonies... and spread the word. Carefully, from a place of hard evidence... not like a bunch of raving lunatics demanding to be seen."
"You realize," Duri drilled, "that this isn't some goofy little prank, right? This is a semi-cannibalistic crime ring that you're alleging takes place here, in this junior high, actively. It sounds like a Satanic Cult!"
"Maybe it is," Noddy offers. "But once we tell everyone, they can't hide anymore. It seems like everyone already knows... but do their parents know? The teachers? The principal? The police?"
Ji-a sighed. "Then we'd be wasting paper just passing it around. We'd have to e-mail it to everyone's parents, and all the staff, and the cops, all at the same time."
Noddy stood up, still sore. "Then we'll do that. I'll go into Mr. Carisol's office, and grab his e-mail registry from his computer, and print it off!"
Duri threw up her arms. "But then who's gonna get the pictures? We can't go after Vlad alone."
Just then, Rex wandered in. Everyone stared at him, and he glanced back.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I thought this was the bathroom."
They pulled him inside.

It was decided: Rex would infiltrate the office, and grab the registry. Noddy, Duri and Ji-a went after Vlad for photo and video evidence. Rex had even told them where to look: first, the boiler room; it was where Vlad often took his victims. Then, they should check Vlad's dorm.
Noddy growled, "That's probably where he keeps the blood cages."
Rex laughed. "The blood cages?"
Nadal nodded. "The cages full of skeletons, bled dry of all their blood."
Duri shook her head. "Man, I thought I'd heard the most ridiculous stuff already, but that..." she groaned.
Duri held the camera bag, with both a video camera and a photo camera inside. Ji-a prepped the video camera, and the long-range microphone attachment. They were ready to bring the truth to light, by whatever means necessary.

They crept up to the doors of the boiler room, and creaked them open. Down they climbed, on darkened steps, until they reached the light switch. Nobody was there. Upstairs, a group of shadows clamored at the windows... Noddy ran upstairs before they could barricade the doors, and the vampires ran off. Noddy held the door for the girls, as they followed him back up.
Ji-a whispered timidly, "They must be on to us, somehow!"
Noddy sighed. "If we don't get to Vlad now, they'll warn him, and he'll move his hostage somewhere else."
The three of them ran to the other end of the school, and toward the ninth grade dorms. In their path was three boys, and three girls, all wearing shades and school uniforms – grey, with red ties. They grinned, and bared their fangs. Noddy swallowed hard, then told Duri and Ji-a to stay back. Ji-a fired up the video camera.
"Hey... guys. Ladies," he said calmly, approaching them cautiously.
"You're the rat, aren't you?" one of them sneered. "You gonna tattle on us?"
Another jeered, "He's not 'the rat', he's Nad-Licker! Remember?"
"Wh- don't call me that!" Nadal shouted.
"Why not?" he taunted. "Nadal Iker Cortez, right? Nadaliker, Nad-Licker! You want some nads to lick, Nad-Licker? I've got some right here!" He cupped his testicles through his pants, and everyone laughed.
"Laugh it up, vampires," Noddy called out. Then, he looked at them... their small crowd. "Shouldn't there be more of you?" Noddy asked.
A girl cackled. "We're the inner circle, pal. Everyone else is just a beggar, crying for our scraps. We ALWAYS get first pick."
Another chimed in, "We don't waste the blood, either, getting fat and lazy. Acting like jerks, hollering in the night and kicking over trashcans."
"We're here to get the edge up over everyone, any way we can. Blood makes you smarter, faster, stronger, and most of all: better. Only Apex Predators would understand that."

"Okay," Noddy argued, "but you realize you could just get more sleep, drink lots of water, exercise frequently, and eat a god damn salad?" He walked closer, into their midst. "Plus, there's the fact that it makes you sick, it's higher in cholesterol, and the human digestive system isn't built like a carnivore's AT ALL? That's not even getting me STARTED on Hematosis."
"Fake science. We know the truth," the tallest boy growled, towering over him.
"I think..." Noddy continued, "you have an addiction, and you've stopped listening to how your bodies really feel. When was the last time you went outside without makeup, or felt that cool tingle in your muscles? Don't you always feel kind of pissed off and swollen?"
The girls touched their powdered faces, and one boy rubbed his nose... revealing scarred acne underneath cover-up.
Noddy waited for them to close in on him. "You guys must get infections more frequently. Me? I never get so much as a pimple, unless I eat too much oil. When was the last time any of you looked in the mirror, and really... SAW YOURSELVES?!"
Noddy swiped every single pair of sunglasses, all six in one round motion, and snapped them in half one by one, in six seconds flat. The vampires, with their glossy, bulging eyes, bruised-looking and dark with rings... they looked at him, and smiled.
"It's overcast, stupid."
That's when Duri flashed the photo camera in their faces, causing them to stagger back and stumble. Noddy pushed each one over onto the grass, as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, blinding them all. They screamed. Noddy lead the girls to the dorm building, and up the stairs. As the vampires started getting up, Duri blockaded the doors with nearby chairs. Luckily, the sun became even brighter, and the vampires stayed down, blocking their eyes from the light.