Kevin groaned and shuffled away from the window, covering his head with a blanket. The sun was far too bright for…twelve-thirty in the afternoon!?

He leapt out of bed and fumbled around his room for a shirt and pants, trying to immediately get ready for school. Then his brain caught up with his body, and he realized it was far too late already. He blinked, realizing he must be alone in the house. He got his phone and called his mom.

“Hi, sweetie. How are you feeling?” she answered after a minute.

“Hi mom. What…what happened?” Kevin said, trying to reorient himself. “Will and I went to a party last night, but after that I don’t really remember.”

“And we’re going to have a long talk about that when I get home.” she promised sternly. “But I decided to let you stay home today because you were so sick. Don’t you remember? You were so clammy and pale I thought I might have to take you to the hospital.”

“Oh.” he said, trying to remember. “Um, yeah. I’m still drawing a blank. Sorry, I am feeling better now though.”

“That’s good. I’ll check in on you when I get home. Take it easy, and don’t hesitate to call if you need it.”

“I will. Thanks, mom. Love you, bye.”

“Bye.” He hung up and shook his head. When he’d first woken up, he was stiff and sore, but now that he was moving he felt good. Like, really good. He made his way over to the bathroom, but tripped over Chester, his mom’s cat as it bolted out from underneath a table.

“Yahhh!” Kevin pinwheeled his arms and instinctively shut his eyes as the floor came closer. He felt his hand hit something. “Huh?”

His eyes widened in astonishment as he was performing a perfect one-handed pushup. He blinked again. His all-time record in gym class was five with both hands. He started raising and lowering himself experimentally, with no strain or effort whatsoever.

“Huh.” he muttered again. It was supremely easy to keep on balance as well. It felt like he was floating. He looked down and saw his legs straight in the air too, holding himself up with just one hand. “Whoa!” He fell, startled. He slowly got to his feet, shaking, and resumed his trek to the bathroom. He flicked on the light and stood at the sink, staring into the mirror.

The mirror was empty. There was nothing staring back at him. He looked at the mirror, then down at himself, then back in the mirror.

Kevin screamed.

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Will put the last of his books away and shut the locker door, revealing Kevin. Will jumped.

“Ahh! Jeez, don’t do that! Nearly gave me a heart attack.” Will said, trying to compose himself. “What’s up? I thought you were out today, what gives?”

“Will, I’m in trouble.” Kevin said nervously, glancing around. “I need your help.” Will noted how serious he sounded.

“Okay. What’s wrong?” Kevin looked at the students in the hallway, going to class.

“Not here. We need to go somewhere private…I know, let’s go to my house.”

“Alriiiiiight.” Will said slowly, not comprehending. “How’d you get here, anyway?”

“I ran.” Kevin shrugged.

“Ran!?” Will boggled. Kevin lived at least ten miles away.

“Look, I promise I’ll explain everything, just please let’s go to your car. I’ll tell you there.” Kevin begged. Will looked at the clock.

“Two o’ clock on a Friday. Meh, history’s boring anyway. C’mon, let’s go.” With Will leading the way, they managed to evade the teachers and slip out a side door.

“I always thought an alarm would sound if those were opened.” Kevin said as they crossed the parking lot. “That would require an alarm system, and thus more money. Not happening.” Will said smugly. Kevin glanced around nervously, and started to duck behind cars to avoid being seen. Will rolled his eyes. “Chill, dude. If you wanna go somewhere you’re not supposed to, you can’t look nervous about it. Just act like you should be going there, and most people won’t question it.”

“Really?” Kevin said, standing up.

“I guarantee.” They came to his Chevy and got in. “Alright, what’s up?”

“First, don’t freak out.” Kevin said solemnly. Will sighed, growing tired of this.

“Fine, what’s wrong?” he said impatiently. Kevin stared him in the eyes.

“Okay. But first, what happened last night?”

“Really?” Will huffed, annoyed. Kevin merely stared at him. “Fine. We went to a party, where you clung to a wall even after I tried to get you loosened up. I wasn’t keeping track, but I think you had a couple too many. Then a total babe comes up and takes you by the hand upstairs. So. How was it?” he said, grinning and leering. “Is our little boy finally a man?” He elbowed Kevin, snickering.

“I admit, I thought it might have been a dream. But penetration did happen.” Kevin replied, straight-faced. Will raised an eyebrow.

“What’s up? Didn’t you use a condom? You didn’t get her pregnant, did you? Or catch something?”

“You could say that.” Kevin said, reaching up to the rearview mirror and adjusting it. “There. Could you look into this, please?” Will leaned over.

“Okay, I see me, and I’m very handsome. So what?” He turned to see a very serious Kevin holding up bunny ears behind his head. He turned back to the mirror, where he saw only his reflection. His eyes bugged out.

“K-Kevin,” he said, voice shaking. “T-Tell me I’m not seeing what I’m not seeing.”

“You are seeing what you’re not seeing. That woman last night, she bit my neck and today I’m pale and can’t be seen in mirrors.” Kevin said. Will stared at him in disbelief.

“That means…you, you’re a…”

“In a whole lot of trouble, a big, messy situation. Which is not helped by the fact we’re in the school parking lot!” Kevin said quickly, his voice rising with each syllable. He looked around for anyone watching as Will started the car and drove them home.

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“Alright. Okay. Don’t panic. The first thing to do is not panic.” Will said nervously, pacing Kevin’s room. “So. You’re a vampire. It’s crazy, and unreal, but you’re a vampire. So, what do we know about vampires? Garlic wards them off, they can’t take crosses or churches, they can only be killed by a stake through the heart or sunlight-!” He dove to close the curtain to the window.

“I, ah, don’t think that’s much of a problem.” Kevin said, knees curled up to his chest on his bed. “I ran to school in broad daylight, remember? I don’t think that’s one of my weaknesses. And do you mind trying to find something else about vampires? Hearing all that’s kiiiiinda making me twitch.”

“Sorry.” Will said, shaking his head. “It’s just, this’s so…I don’t know. Anyway, what else?”

“Well, the obvious part is the-” he shuddered “-blood drinking. Gross. Other than that, I’m not really sure.”

“Huh? You don’t know? How could you not know!? I thought you were a nerd, that’s why you help me pass my tests!” Will wailed.

“I don’t know because there’s not just ONE version of vampirism!” Kevin snapped. “Do you know how many vampire traditions there ARR? Dozens! Hundreds! And that’s just the Euro-American myths. There are tons more around the world, each weirder than the last! Some are walking corpses, some are demons, some are just plain out there. Australia has one that waits in fig trees and sucks blood through suckers on its fingers, and Mexico has the chupacabra, which might not count but since it drinks blood I’m counting it anyway. It’s a three-foot tall monster that only drinks the blood of goats and looks like a little green man had a kid with a porcupine.”

“Really?” Will said incredulously. Kevin nodded.

“Yup. Its’ name translates literally to ‘goat-sucker’. Shut up.” he said at Will’s snickering.

“Okay, so it could be any one of those, barring the goat-sucker. Unless…?” Will looked at him, eyebrow raised.

“No. Definitely not.” Kevin deadpanned.

“Okay. So let’s narrow it down then. You don’t look too different, aside from the paleness. Do you have fangs?”

“Dunno. Can’t see myself in the mirror.” Kevin shrugged.

“Well, open up.” Kevin opened his mouth as wide as it could go. Will shined a flashlight in.

“’Ell? ‘Ow ‘oes iii ‘ook?” Kevin asked.

“Hmm. Your canines are a little bit longer and more pointed, I guess. But it’s hard to tell for sure, I’m not a dentist.” Will said.

“Great. So either I don’t have fangs, I don’t have fangs yet, or they only grow longer when I’m about to…feed.” Kevin complained, making a sour face.

“So…what are you going to do about that?” Will said, staring nervously at him. Kevin shook his head.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know. I’ll think of something later, let’s focus on this for now. Alright, I can’t be seen in mirrors, I can stand sunlight, I kinda-sorta have fangs, and I’m pale. Oh, and I’m strong, too.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah. Watch this.” Kevin jumped off the bed into a one-handed handstand.

“Whoa!” Will exclaimed, jumping himself. “Can you, like, lift up something heavier?” Kevin got to his feet, bent down, and picked up his entire bed with ease, like a forklift. “Whoa! Freaking cool!”

“Yeah, I guess.” Kevin said bashfully, setting the metal frame down gently.

“Listen, can you jump high too? Wanna join the basketball team? You’ll be able to dunk no problem, you could go pro and get rich and famous!” Will said, his eyes gleaming.

“And never be seen in instant replay?” Kevin asked, eyebrow raised.

“Oh yeah. Good point.” Will conceded. “So, can you do anything else cool? Like, turn into a bat, fly around, or hypnotize people?”

“I…don’t know.” Kevin said, scratching his head. “I mean, I guess, maybe, in theory. Traditional vampires should be able to, I suppose, especially ones that’re based off of…wait a minute.” He pulled out his phone and typed something in. A minute later, his eyes went wide and he grinned. “Yeah! I thought so! Listen, in the original novel, Dracula wasn’t destroyed by sunlight either!”

“Really?” Will said, leaning over to see.

“Yeah! Apparently, he can…wow, it’s been awhile since I read it. He can turn into various kinds of animals and control them, and turn into a mist; he can teleport, control the weather, has telepathy, is ageless, has unnatural agility, hypnotize others, and the bite can influence them. He could create illusions, slip through any crack, and shapeshift during the day, though only at morning, noon or night, and possessed the strength of twenty strong men.” Will let out a low whistle.

“Wow. You can do all that?”

“Dunno. Dracula, though believed to have a historical counterpart in Vlad Tepes III, is fictional. The only thing I can say positively for sure is the strength, sunlight and feeding on blood, which I only know because that’s what that woman did to me last night.”

“Don’t forget no reflection. Honestly, you look like a mess.” Will coughed politely.

“Right. As if all this wasn’t complicated enough.” Kevin groaned. “Well, it kinda seems to fit, so…”

“You’re a dracula?” Will asked.

“I might be a dracula.” Kevin nodded.

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Kevin sat on his bed, absently paging through a comic book and watching the sun go down through the window. His mother had made a fuss over him, and Will, looking thoroughly weirded out after the day, had gone home. Now he was alone with his thoughts.

“So, a vampire.” he mused. “Well, I guess it’s kinda like Batman.” He looked at the book in his hands, shook his head and tossed it away. “What am I gonna do.” he murmured, curling into a ball. His mom had offered him dinner but he’d turned it down. The smell of it was unappetizing. She’d felt his forehead, and he was still clammy and cold. Worried, she’d proclaimed if he showed no improvement by morning, they’d be visiting the hospital, over his panicked protests that he was fine. His stomach started to growl.

“Great. Sixteen years old, and my life is over. Not that I had much of one to begin with.” he sighed. The sun sank lower in the sky. “It’s all that Genevieve’s fault. She bit me then just disappeared. I oughtta stake her for that-that’s it!” Kevin’s eyes widened in realization. If it was the same as in Dracula, he reasoned, then all he had to do was find the vampire that bit him, stake ‘em, and he’d be cured. He furiously texted his plan to Will.

Good idea, bro. Knew you’d come up with something. I’ll ask around, see if anyone knows her or saw where she went. In the meantime, sit back and try to relax. No sense in overdoing it. You’re supposed to be sick, remember? And I guess you are, kind of. Just take it easy. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Kevin threw his phone on the bed, growling in frustration. Intellectually, he knew letting Will ask around was the better bet, but he came up with the idea and now it was rattling around his brain, impossible to ignore.

“No, I’m in a very unusual state.” he reasoned aloud. “I should stay in bed and relax. I’m sick, and I won’t be able to find her, and-”

The sun went down.

It was like a switch had been flipped. One second, he was beating himself up, trying to hold in his frustration, the next he was wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, unable to keep still.

“Yeah! Oh man! What-What’s going on?” he said in amazement as he bounced in place, trying to burn off some of the extra energy. It felt like he never would. His eyes went to the window. A second later, he was opening it without consciously realizing what he was doing. He came to his senses and was about to close it when the smell hit. Earthy and clean, he could smell the wood in fireplaces burning brightly, the moisture in the air and the dirt absorbing it, the fragrance of molding leaves and grass. He could feel the sharp cold on his skin and in his lungs, ordinarily cold enough to make him shiver but he was burning red-hot, too wild to chill. The waxing moon hung high in the sky with thin wispy clouds, shining under the diamond-gleaming stars. His canines tingled, and he could not resist jumping out into the perfect night.