“What do we do now?” Michael asked.

“Tomorrow’s the first day of school so we will be retiring right about now. We always turn in early the day before.”

“What about rooms?” Michael asked. “I don’t know mine.”

“That’s an easy fix,” the tallest of Elena’s group said. “Check your robe. You’ll find something that should tell you which room you’re in.”

“Boys’ rooms are on the third and fourth floors,” Elena began. “Girls occupy the first, second and part of third floor. The stairs lead to the upper floors and all other facilities can be found on the ground floor.”

Michael had been rummaging through his robe and just as Elena finished, he found what looked like a tiny token with the words “4J” written on it.

“It says 4J,” he said, holding it up to them.

“That’s the fourth floor,” Elena said. “Come on then.”

The stairs creaked beneath their feet as they climbed. They didn’t creak because they were bad but because they were made to. Michael could see what looked to be house banners adorning the walls as they walked past them.

“This is us,” the taller boy said as they stopped on the third floor. “Elena, Marcus and I are all on the same floor. Marcus and I are in ‘3C’ and Elena is in ‘3V’.”

“Just head on up and check the doors. You should see the one that matches the token in your hand,” Marcus said as they waved Michael goodbye.

“Thanks,” he said to them as he continued up the stairs.

He reached the fourth floor and continued down the hall looking for his room. It would seem that most students had either gotten to their rooms or were preparing to go to there.

Soon, he came across a door with ‘4J’. He pushed the door open and the sight was breath-taking. His eyes immediately fell on the beds. Tall, large and looked to be made of beautiful wood. He walked up to it and slowly sat down. It was far more comfortable than anything he had placed his body on. The sheets were black and satin with thick colours and were illuminated by a single desk lamp. It wasn’t that it was overly fancy but it was just comfortable.

Across the beds stood a single wardrobe of ebony wood. He walked up to it and upon opening it, he was instantly flushed with a scent of cedar. The wardrobe was split down the middle and on the side he opened, he could see some cloaks. At the bottom was a trunk. He knelt down to inspect the trunk and he saw a name on it.

“I don’t remember owning a trunk,” he said as he opened it. Inside were uniforms and some supplies. Draken must have provided him with these items. The uniform was neatly folded alongside the other items and there were various books, parchment and writing instruments.

He placed the uniform back in the trunk and turned back to the bed closest to his part of the wardrobe. He assumed it would be his because it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Something in the window caught his eye, and he was giddy. The view of the astronomy tower was just sublime. He held the glass and he could tell how thick it was.

At a corner was the bathroom but besides that, the room felt empty. He must have been the first one here, or possibly the only one here.

Just then the doors opened and in walked a dark-haired boy. His hair looked lighter than Michael’s and he had a rather peculiar aura about him. Michael couldn’t deny that the boy looked fancy.

“H-Hello,” Michael said as he and the boy locked eyes.

The boy met his gaze easily and Michael looked away after a short while. He was uncomfortable, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the other party.

“What’s your name?” the boy asked as he placed a trunk on the other bed.

“Michael.”

The boy held the look before turning away. “The name’s Julian of the house of Lorian. What house are you from? I’m assuming you’re a vampire?”

Michael turned to him, an eyebrow arched. It was the first he had heard of such a thing. “House?”

Now it was Julian’s turn to arch an eyebrow. He sniffed the air, a light frown on his face. “Are you a new vampire?”

The conversation between them had gone on long enough for Michael to get more comfortable. “I’m not yet a vampire but in transition. At least that’s what I was told.”

The statement confused Julian a bit. “Still in transition? When did you die?”

“I haven’t died. I don’t remember dying and it’s the same thing I told the headmaster. For as long as I can remember, I have always lived at the orphanage. No dying.” At this point, Michael was all too familiar with the ‘when did you die?’ question.

“What kind of vampire doesn’t remember dying or becomes a vampire without dying? That’s unprecedented.”

Michael sighed. He didn’t think he would be explaining this again. “I don’t remember dying because I have never died.”

The look on Julian’s face told Michael everything he needed to know.

“So, you’re telling me, you somehow became a vampire without dying. Next thing you’re going to tell me is you don’t remember drinking vampire blood.”

The silence from Michael was deafening and Julian couldn’t believe his sight or his ears.

“How in the world did you become a vampire then?” he asked. With every word he spoke, he took a step forward. Within a few feet from Michael, he finally noticed the red eyes and his feet froze before taking a step back.

This was becoming an entire ordeal. Julian was knowledgeable about vampire affairs and everything he had learned showed him that a vampire in transition has no business with red eyes. Red eyes were reserved for vampires, and it was only revealed when they showed their feral nature.

“You know what,” he said, clearly frustrated by what he was hearing, “story for another day. We’re roommates now, so that’s worth looking forward to and…” he paused at that moment. Could this be the reason they heard three voices during Michael’s selection ritual?

Michael on the other hand was pretty much okay with not talking about it. It was becoming too much for him. While he hung his robes, Julian had pulled himself out of his musings.

“Why haven’t you transitioned yet?”

Michael placed his robe down before turning to face Julian. “I’ll be doing that tomorrow seeing how I just found out about everything today.”

“That’s fast,” Julian said as he took off his own robes. He was already dressed in the school uniform as opposed to Michael. “You’d usually need time to take in something like this. Don’t you feel like you’re rushing it?”

Michael stopped what he was doing and tried to recall the events of the day. From the outside, it was easy to see how he could be rushing things. However, they would lack the ability to properly judge events because they hadn’t seen life from his perspective.

“No,” he said, confidence lacing his voice. “This was the right call.”

Julian quietly observed Michael before giving a nod and walking over to his bed.

Silence prevailed over the room. Michael was left wondering. He felt the need to say something but didn’t know what to say to continue the conversation. Eventually, something familiar clicked in his head.

“How did you become a vampire?”

“That’s an easy question. I have always been one. I was born into the house of Lorian, grew up a vampire, transitioned at birth. Basically, the first thing my parents did.”

Michael could notice a shift in Julian’s tone when he said parents. He couldn’t really tell what it was but it felt nice.

“What about the transition? How does it work?”

Julian could pick up a hint of fear from Michael. “Are you scared?”

“I have a right to be scared, mainly because I don’t know anything about it.”

“Well,” Julian said with a smile. “It’s nothing to be worried about. You just have to drink blood and let your body process it.”

“Process it?” he asked with uncertainty.

“In a normal scenario,” he said, looking oddly at Michael, “a person has twenty-four hours to transition after dying. In that moment, they are only sustained by the magic from the vampire blood. Ingesting human blood will restart the heart, giving it new blood to pump around the body. Admittedly, it is a slightly painful process, depending on the person in question.”

Michael nodded. He was beginning to get an idea of what transitioning would entail. The pain would just be something that he would deal with.

Julian watched Michael’s reaction before asking a question. “Did the headmaster say anything about your eyes. They are…”

“Unnerving?”

“No. It actually is a nice look, helps when you’re aiming for intimidation, which is quite a good trait for a vampire.”

Before Michael could respond, the lights in the room went out. He looked out the window. It was the same for the Astronomy Tower.

“What’s happening?” Michael asked.

“My guess is, an early light out because tomorrow is the first day of school. You should get some shut-eye because it will be the last time your body genuinely gives into tiredness.”

That confused Michael.

“Tiredness?”

“Vampires don’t get tired. We’re dead.”

This was new information.

“How do you… I mean, how would we fall asleep?”

“It’s actually quite easy. We just fall asleep. It’s hard to explain but you’ll get it when you become one.”

Michael could barely make out Julian’s face but the explanation. He didn’t even know if it was something he would understand but it was best to leave that for the next day. The moment his back hit the bed, his body was immediately made aware of an unforeseen exhaustion. His eyes grew tired and he looked towards Julian’s corner of the room. It was silent, he was probably asleep. It didn’t take long before he was also overwhelmed by exhaustion and his eyes closed.