Young Writers Society

Adrid nodded, and followed awkwardly behind.

_____

"Dunno," said Siren, and hopped back up. "What's that smell?" she said, following her nose to the bar in one swift motion. "I want some."

She couldn't read the words on any of the labels, so she pointed at the bottle that had a ship on it. "That one."

The bartender looked down at the short, blue, vaguely slimey looking finned girl, and restrained his bemusement expertly.

"Sixty year old ship captain, Bartholomew Crookley? Tropical, extra pulp?"

Siren blinked. "Yes."

James was honestly amazed at how Siren either by luck or instinct ended up pointing at a bottle that seemed to fit her tastes exactly. He knew she'd spoken of pirates and sailors and her kind eating them, so this was not far out of the way of what she normally... ingested. It occurred to him that even him drinking blood from a glass was not registering to her as bizarre or even disgusting at all.

She was not human, like him, and she probably would never consider drinking human blood to be a form of cannibalism. But even in that vein, it wasn't like James was human either - at least, not anymore. He was... undead. And it still felt like the strangest thing.

He watched as the bartender poured Siren a drink and slid it across the counter. James took it and handed it to Siren, trying not to think about the chunks of coagulated blood floating around in it.

He felt nauseous, but he stifled it and steeled his nerves and instead, took another quick sip of his own cup of blood.

Bad idea. It was still the one of the weirdest sensations he'd experienced to date. He did not want to admit it even to himself, but it was refreshing, even while it was disgusting.

Wait, was Tiberius actually drinking the blood? Télos was admittedly starting to get a little hungry and thirsty, but it wasn't like he was going to drink the blood Kaito had gotten him. He just couldn't. It was wrong. It didn't matter that he wasn't human normally, and Kaito's decision to get one named Elizabeth wasn't really all that helpful.

But Télos couldn't really judge, could he? They had roles they needed to fulfill, even when the girl that he was talking to couldn't have possibly been a vampire regularly.

"Hi Tiberius," Télos said, giving a wave with his free hand as he approached the two. "I, er, never got to answer your question earlier, but I'm just like you-"

He froze when he got a glimpse of what was in Tiberius's cup. Were those chunks of blood? When the blood was smooth throughout, it was easier to pretend it wasn't someone's blood and was just some fancy drink. But when he saw the chunks...

He paled.

...This was even worse than the space masquerade!


For a moment, neither one of them moved.

Kaito and the vampire just kept staring at each other and their own glasses of blood. He knew he had to say something, but what was he supposed to say? How were vampires supposed to act? This was something they really should have thought of before Télos went running after Tiberius, but Télos wasn't even here now for Kaito to send desperate looks to.

"I should, um, probably go?" Kaito said. It came out as more of a question than he had intended for it to. He gulped and gave the vampire a very awkward, nervous smile and went to join Télos.

"I should probably go, too," the vampire said. His smile only looked slightly less forced than Kaito's was.

Kaito didn't glance back at him for a few moments. When he finally did, he was shocked to see that the vampire wasn't behind him.

...Then he glanced over to the side.

And found himself staring at the vampire, who looked just as startled as Kaito was. They were walking in the same direction. Of course they were walking in the same direction.

"If we're heading the same way, introductions are probably a good idea," the vampire suggested. His tone said otherwise, but Kaito really didn't have the courage to point that out right now.

Kaito nodded.

"Introductions are good," he agreed, his voice slightly shaky. "I'm Kaito. Kaito, uh, Shion."

"Lorcan," the vampire offered. "Lorcan Furey II."

They both froze.

"...Isn't that the name of the vampire from Vampirates?" Kaito said. It didn't matter that he hadn't been on earth for the past few years - he still knew his literature.

"...Isn't that the name of a Voca...Voca...Voca-loid?" the vampire replied.

They stared at each other.

Then Lorcan gave a little smile that Kaito quickly shared - having picked up on exactly what Kaito had just picked up on.

"You're not normally like this?" Kaito whispered.

Lorcan nodded. "And you aren't, either?"

Kaito gave a little nod of his head.

"...I won't share where your name if from if you don't share where mine is from," Lorcan whispered, but not in a threatening way.

"Deal," Kaito whispered back.

They turned their attention back to the drinks table.

"I was following my friend Télos," Kaito explained. "We were talking with that man - Tiberius - earlier, but he slipped off before we could really get into the conversation."

"I saw the girl he was talking to and guessed they were in the same situation as me," Lorcan said, giving a relieved smile. "I guess I was right."

His smile faltered.

Kaito frowned. "What's wrong?"

"...Have you seen a boy with white hair and red eyes?" Lorcan asked. They were almost at Tiberius, Télos and the girl now. "I went to get us drinks, but he wasn't where we were earlier. I...I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction."

Kaito glanced around and found no one who matched that description.

He shook his head.

"I haven't," he said. "But I'll help you find him, once I talk to Télos."

Lorcan gave a tiny smile, his fangs glinting in the lighting of the ballroom.

"Thank you," he whispered.

They were finally at the drinks table.

Daisy frowned when the boys both left. They weren't exactly rude about it, it was just that the girl with the glowing eyes - Kate, she had said her name was - didn't seem up for talking.

The reality of the situation dawned on Daisy, and she felt a bit ill.

Blood, human blood, was being passed around like expensive wine at this excentric party. A gathering of vampires.

"So you're a baby bat," Kate grumbled. It wasn't completely clear if she was talking to Daisy, specifically, because she was glaring out at the crowd. Daisy wondered if someone out there had wronged her or something.

"I beg your pardon?" Daisy asked, confused.

Kate's eyes rolled and she looked at Daisy, giving her a lazy once-over, "Save your fucking begging for someone who gives a shit."

Daisy blinked. "Oh." It was less a word than a miscellaneous sound of surprise.

Kate rolled her eyes again and stalked off to the counter, perhaps to get more blood, though Daisy suspected she was just looking for someone more like her to talk to.

"Thank you," Siren enunciated, proud to know this custom.

She then happily stared fixatedly at the cup in her hands for about five seconds before she did anything else.

"Huhuhuhu. These people are funny, James." she said, amused. "They use glass."

Why did they bottle it? Blood was fun, in the heat of the moment, but to save it for later, that was bizarre. Did they use magic to keep it from going bad? They would have needed magic to make glass, for one thing, so it stood to reason they were magic.

But why store it? Did they have long winters? These poor people, having to rely on saving the blood of invaders to last the season.

Come to think of it, most of these bottles had the names of fancy ladies.

Siren pictured an army of ferocious cutlass-toting ladies in blood spattered frills, and chortled. "Huhuhu."

Finally, she took a drink. "Chewy," was the verdict.

James couldn’t decide between laughing or retching in disgust at Siren’s comment, but he landed on a straight face and a slow blink. Gods, it was a lot easier to pretend he was someone else when he didn’t have to pretend to be something else too, and especially in front of Telos, who was unabashedly giving both him and Siren a look of horror and judgement.

He understood, of course. Telos had standards, and one of those was not to drink human blood, even when his body was altered to desire it. James would’ve done the same, of course, if he wasn’t more concerned with blending in and not becoming a social pariah.

Of course, it only occurred to him that if this bizarre situation was supposed to be a test of integrity of character, he probably just failed. Oh well. Death had been toying with him for a long time. It would be just as well that it happened in a twisted dream like this.

He locked eyes with Telos as Telos’s words cut short and lifted his glass of blood like one would for a toast, and then threw it back and took a very, very long drink. All while maintaining eye contact.

When he pulled it from his lips he realized it was almost empty already, and he felt the strangest rush of energy buzzing through him. The closest thing he could compare it to was when a healer healed a wound and sent life into your body while it mended itself.

He wasn’t aware, but his red eyes shifted to a slightly deeper shade.

“Glad to know we have something in common,” he said, letting his mouth turn up into a grin, flashing his pointed teeth. Those, he was aware of. It was intentional. “Have you met my friend, here?” he said, gesturing to his merfrog companion. “Her name is Siren. Siren, this is Telos.”

Tiberius was, uh, really good at the vampire act.

Télos wasn't sure how he could get his eyes to change color like his just had, but he did give an awkward smile that showed off his fangs. "I haven't," he said. "It's nice to meet you, Siren."

He took a hopefully unnoticeable deep breath.

Everything was so different than what Télos had experienced before. The party, the vampires, Tiberius's act, Siren - Télos was feeling more and more overwhelmed the more he thought about everything that was going on.

Kaito suddenly emerged from the crowd next to him. He was standing next to a vampire that Télos didn't recognize, but Kaito seemed so at ease that he had to be like them.

...Right?

He took another deep breath. He could do this. They just had to get away from the drinks table and somewhere nice and quiet. Then he wouldn't have to worry about acting like a vampire, or worry about accidentally revealing something he shouldn't.

He gave Tiberius another smile - this one more confident than before. His friends had always said that it looked a little evil sometimes; from the way Kaito was staring at him, he guessed now was one of those times.

...Wait.

Hadn't Siren called Tiberius James?

He glanced between the two.

Was Tiberius lying to him, or was he lying to Siren? Or both of them? Why would he even use an alias in the first place-

He looked back at Kaito.

Who was in the middle of pretending to sip from his glass, his newfound friend looking on with discomfort. "If we're doing introductions, hi," Kaito said putting the glass down for a moment. "I'm Kaito, and this is Lorcan."

He gestured at Télos.

"Télos, this is Lorcan."

"Nice to meet you," Télos said, desperately hoping his earlier guess was right. He glanced around at the others that were beginning to gather near the drinks table - Tiberius/James/?, Siren, and Kate, who had just emerged from the crowd - and over at the few that remained where they were earlier.

"Nice to meet you, too," Lorcan said, giving a tiny smile. His fangs glinted in the light of a nearby torch. He glanced back at a woman who was trailing behind him - she was the one who had been shouting earlier. "This is Adrid."

...This was starting to get a little too chaotic.

"We should go for a walk," Télos suggested. "To, er, get to know each other better?"

He pointed in the direction of the hallway outside the ballroom.

"It's really nice out there," he said. "Kaito and I were there earlier. The walls are all made of stone, and there's torches, and..."

He sent a desperate look in Kaito's direction.

"And suits of armor," Kaito helpfully added. "Lots of, um, suits of armor?"

"It's the perfect atmosphere for walking and talking," Télos said. "Especially about more personal things."

Well, that was one way to put it. James rested his near-empty glass on the bar and leaned on it. He noticed the bartender was giving him a questioning look and looking at his glass. James decided to push the little voice that said “no” to the back of his head and nodded.

And voilà. His glass was refilled.

He picked up his filled glass. “That sounds like a wonderful idea,” he said to Telos. “Why don’t you go find Daisy and Kate as well. I can meet you there with Siren.” He looked down at Siren. “Wanna go for a walk? We can explore a little bit. Just be careful not to spill.”

Without meaning to, Adrid leaned hopefully in the direction of this corridor before she had been told that it was there. Stone walls, torches in brackets, suits of armour. It sounded so comfortable.

'Lead the way,' she said with a stoic head tilt, that being the primary language of her profession.

___

Happy to go anywhere, Siren nodded thoroughly. A stream of blood went down her hand. She left it alone a few seconds, of the mind that it would at all make the action more subtle, and licked it.

Her dress was still white. And it had already been a whole five minutes. To think her tribe had ever thought she wouldn't blend in to dress-wearing society.

With Siren's agreement, James didn't feel like waiting for Telos's approval. Now that his attention was brought to it, he saw the corridor in question and knew which way to go. Without a word, he gently reached down for Siren's webbed hand to lead the way.

"Okay, let's go," he said quietly, more like a whisper, as he headed over.

Through the crowd, Daisy spotted the people she'd been chatting with before, all of whom had seemed to find more interesting things to do or other conversations to have elsewhere. She couldn't help feeling a bit hurt that they'd all just wandered off like that without really paying her any mind.

But they were gathering now, near a hallway leading away from the main party, and she decided to go see what they were up to. Surely they hadn't meant anything by it earlier. They probably just got distracted. With that thought, she brushed off her skirt and began to maneuver her way over to them through the crowd.



Kate wanted to get back on her fucking ship and sail to a world where fucking glitter-sniffing-magic-junkies couldn't reach her and her actually not terrible life. Lully probably missed her, too. Kate missed Tallulah.

The bartender - some grunt with is nose so far in the air you'd think he was sniffing for pixies - asked if she wanted a drink.

"I'll fucking drain whatever blood you have left if you offer me that barbaric parody of a meal again," she growled. He left her alone after that.

Through the sound of the idle chatter of caricatures masquerading about as vamps, a familiar voice carried. A different note than the others, the sickeningly polite chick's voice danced about over the murder of the crowd. Kate glanced over to see her walking around like some wannabe ballerina, like there was no weight to her at all as she wove between the vampires with apology after bloody apology for her dastardly sin of trying to fucking walk. Kate felt the urge to scream at her. You don't have to fucking apologize. Shut the fuck up and let someone be mildly inconvenienced. They'll fucking survive.

To block out that urge, Kate looked at where she was going.

Of course.

The out-of-world folks had all gathered in a merry band. Probably to go solve this exciting mystery like a gang of misfits from a trashy YA-novel.

Kate grumbled some unsavory things under her breath as she got up from the bar, shooting a glare at the bartender when he actually looked relieved to see her walking away. Or maybe that was her imagination. She glared anyway.

There was no getting back to Tallulah if she didn't do whatever the fuck the man behind the curtain wanted. She'd do it fucking quickly and show off her favorite finger for his trouble the moment she found him.

So, shoving her way all the way there, Kate made it to the group.

"Let me guess," she said, glaring at every one of them at once, "you're gonna find out which fucktard with a god complex dragged us to this disgusting political cartoon of a party." It was definitely not a fucking question.

Siren accepted James' hand, and followed like a lamb with a cupful of blood.

"Oh," she whispered back, "We're sneaking."

And though her whisper was not especially subtle, her rubbery, mildly slimy feet were silent as the passage of time.

__


Adrid couldn't believe herself. What was she doing, tagging along behind, like a lost girl? Lost she was, and beasts they were, but she was a guard.

But nobody had threatened her. Openly. Yet.

Itching to do something, but unable to justify it, she resorted to walking with a more defiant posture, and promising herself that the first unholy abscess to look at her suggestively would get a spear in the throat.

Paige followed to the group of people near the hallway, making sure to step carefully and not bump into anyone. She was very ready to chuck this glass of blood the second she was given a chance.

However, for now, she took another sip.

It felt refreshing, probably had a stimulant of some sort or another. The academy often slipped them in their drinks before a mission. Keep them focused. Maybe Miss Montague had bribed the bartender, or even replaced the previous one.

She set the glass on the next solid surface she passed.

When she reached the others, she smiled a bit, acutely aware of every time her heart beat.

Télos was shocked that they had gotten everyone out into the hallway without any major bickering - arguing was something that seemed pretty common to situations like these. Even more so, he was shocked that no one outside of their group had joined them out in the hallway. Wasn't it suspicious for such a large group to be leaving at the same time?

Well, whatever the case was, Télos was grateful. They were safe, and all they had to do was walk just a little bit more until they could start talking without any prying ears-

Lorcan and Kaito, who had both been trailing at the very back of the group suddenly came to a stop. Télos didn't even have to look to know. It was definitely a little creepy being able to hear what they were doing that well, but he guessed that was one of the perks of being a vampire. Maybe he could try changing his form to that sometime?

"I just heard something," Lorcan said.

Télos glanced back.

"Me too," Kaito said. He nervously looked behind him. "It came from back down the hallway - past the ballroom."

Lorcan turned and stared towards the source of the sound. Télos couldn't decipher the look on his face, but he was never good at reading emotions. "It sounded like something hitting a wall," Lorcan commented. "Then someone said something."

Kaito nervously looked at the others in the group, his gaze finally landing on Télos. "Castles have secret passageways."

Télos paled.

"What-what if someone got stuck in one and died?" Télos whispered. He knew he was in the front of the group, but he desperately wanted to cower behind Kaito right now. "And you heard its g-g-ghost?"

Kaito paled a little.

"I just thought that someone might be listening in on us," Kaito said. "But maybe it is a ghost-Wait, where did Lorcan go?"

Télos glanced over at where Lorcan was.

But he was gone.

Golden eyes widening in alarm, Télos frantically looked around in search of Lorcan. Had the ghost taken him? Télos didn't know how to fight a ghost, especially now that he was a vampire. How were they going to help-

He finally caught sight of Lorcan.

He was halfway down the hallway, standing in front of two identical suits of armor. Télos moved to the back of the group - stopping beside Kaito and watching Lorcan nervously. It was like he was in a trance.

(Which, Télos thought, definitely added more to the whole ghost theory.)

And then the suit of armor Lorcan was in front of moved.

Télos and Kaito both gave startled cries, but each had the wisdom to cover each other's mouths to muffle the noise. They could only watch in horror as Lorcan was completely unfazed by the moving suit of armor.

Then the armor removed its helmet.

Télos felt his face go red when he realized that he had been wrong in his initial guess - the armor had a person inside it. Another vampire, with white hair and bright red eyes.

"Second," Lorcan said, relief flooding his voice, "you're alright-"

Second replied by taking one of the two glasses of blood in Lorcan's hands and downing it in a single, large gulp. If Télos wasn't so confused, and that hadn't been blood, he might have been impressed.

"Sorry," Second apologized. "I've been trying to fight the urge to drink for the past twenty minutes."

As if everything wasn't confusing enough, a tiny voice called out from the suit of armor closest to Second, "Mister Second? Can I come out now? I'm really, really scared of the dark..."

James stayed close to Siren as he followed the others down the hallway, even in the midst of Telos and the other's panic. He was more distracted that, like the others, apparently his hearing had been repaired to not only be better but apparently above average. He wasn't accustomed to hearing things from afar so clearly. He didn't have to rely on sight, or reading lips, or context clues, or drawing close.

He took his time catching up, sipping on the blood idly and trying not to think about it. When he saw what Telos and the others were up to, he wasn't surprised to see that they'd found other people. But he did want to know why they were hiding in the armor that was supposed to be on display.

Perhaps, in their confusion and fear of being drawn to a foreign place, they simply hid. That was, at least, what he hoped to be the simple answer.

He looked at the armor that hadn't' moved yet, but had spoken. It sounded... small. Perhaps a child.

He didn't say anything though. He just observed with indifference and kept an eye on Siren, still holding her webbed hand - unless she wanted both hands free, of course.