John leads the two of us through a back door situated on the opposite side of the Bibliotheca Vampiric. We are now in a room that must have been built more recently as an attachment to the library’s old exterior. I assume this must be the garage. Parked inside there is a white vehicle which appears to be a miniature bus, or some kind of RV model. The white bus is quite sizable considering the cramped nature of the garage. Nothing about the bus’s appearance is very astounding to look at; however, the crude, red striped lines painted across the vehicle’s doors gives it a “cheapness factor” which I can only assume John had fabricated.

I notice that Dot has already seated herself in the bus, and she seems to be speaking with someone on her cellphone. She really did get here fast, just as John had asked of her.

John: “Alright you two, get in. No fighting over who sits where, we’re on a tight schedule. To be more specific, we’re already late!”

Without saying a word, Justice and I walk over to the bus and get in on either side. John sets himself into the driver’s seat. From the passenger seat, Dot looks back at the two of us.

Dot: “I can’t wait for you guys to meet the others! I really hope that you’ll all get along okay!”

Luke: “What makes you think that we won’t get along?”

Dot: “Uhh….it's not that they won’t like you, or anything…. It's just that so many vampires in one place can be a little too much for….people who aren’t used to it! Some young vampires can be a bit too overbearing… Wait! I just noticed. You two don’t have uniforms yet…. John, I thought it was a rule that we had to wear the uniforms while on official missions….so VLAD can identify us as agents.”

I realize that Dot has changed into what I assume is the uniform she speaks about. How did she change so fast?! She wears a white shirt with a black tie and a matching black jacket and skirt. It really does look like what a special agent would wear. Maybe if I was wearing something cool too, I wouldn’t feel so anxious right now…

John turns the key in the ignition.

John: “Oh yeah…. Sorry, I forgot to give them to you…. It's alright though, you won’t be doing much work this time. This is really just for the experience….”

Justice: “Why aren’t you wearing one?”

John: “Me? Huhu… I don’t need to…. Uniforms are such a waste of money! Plus, VLAD knows me well enough anyway.”

The garage door facing the street outside lifts open. John drives onto the road and makes a right turn. We start heading away from the downtown area of Bluddington city.

Dot: “I called Zora before we left. She says there is a kismet victim who is unharmed, but in an undesirable situation. She also said that there are a few other unexpected victims, and the vampire who is the perpetrator is nowhere to be found, so far. She and the others are waiting for us to get to the location of the incident. Apparently the perpetrator is not a threat at the moment…”

John: “Wonderful. This should be no problem for us. Luke, Justice, consider this your first lesson! Haha!”

Justice: “Oh …….I can’t wait…..”

For the remainder of the drive, Justice does not express anymore annoyance with petty sarcasm. Driving in silence, I can only wonder what this mission concerning vampires entails. Though having learned so much already about the vampire kind, to me they still appear as being obscured in mystery…. I cannot begin to link myself with this world just yet…

For a while, I watch as we pass the buildings along the road. They get further and further apart, as we drive further away from the city. Once we have entered the countryside of Bluddington city, Jon slows down the bus… It seems we have arrived at the “location of the incident”.

John stops and parks the bus on the side of the road. We appear to be in an area not too far from the city but that is much less populated than the residential areas close to the downtown. There are only a few small houses, all in the pleasant country home style. Not one house has been built directly beside another, there is a decent length of grass fields, trees and bushes between each building.

The house that we have parked in front of has a thick layer of bushes and small trees surrounding it, hiding the face of the building from view. However, looking up above the greenery, I can see the black shingles of the roof and some of the white paneling of the house’s exterior. Considering the state of the property, it appears as if the house is uninhabited….or at least no one has cared to mow the lawn in quite some time.

John: “Alrighty, here we are. So, to make things clear for you, Luke, Justice….I don’t expect you to do much of the exciting agent work this time around. Actually, I could get in real trouble with my boss if I let you do that…..so….Anyway, Dot will make sure everyone stays in order while doing business here. See you in a bit!”

John gives me, Justice and Dot a small wave as he takes a couple steps backwards, then in a wisp of dark smoke, he transforms into a raven once again.

Justice: “Wait! Where are you going?!”

Luke: “Eh! You’re not helping with the mission, John?”

John: “I see how it looks, but isn’t it better letting you youngsters learn from your own experience? Don’t worry! I’ll be within shouting distance.”

John flaps his jet black wings as the distance between us increases. He circles overhead.

Justice: “How does he even do that? Where do his clothes go?!”

Justice is so distressed by all of this! He just won't let anything slide….

John: “It’s best to not complicate things, Justice. Instead of expecting to be told what to do, I suggest you simply put your trust in your peers. You understand, don’t you?”

John finally flies away, into the distance somewhere. Justice turns his head and looks me in the eyes. What is he asking for? I decide to make a face and stick my tongue out at him.

Dot: “Alright! The others should be this way. Follow me!”

Dot gestures towards the obscured house. Justice and I follow her over to an old and rusted metal gate. The gate creaks as Dot uses force to open it. With enough room for us to squeeze through, we enter into the front lawn of the property.

The house’s front yard is covered by the shade of the many overgrown trees that surround the area. It takes a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the limited lighting.

The face of the house is bare, however the white panels of its exterior walls are somewhat dirty from the years of seasonal weather changes and dust brought by gusty winds. The three of us seem to study our surroundings at the same time. I look to the left side of the yard. Near an area of exposed dirt that might have been a vegetable garden once, there stands a strange structure that appears to be made from stone. It's next to this structure that I see the movements of several people.

All dressed in variations of the same agent’s uniform that Dot wears, these must be the other VLAD trainees that have been expecting us.

Dot: “Hey, you guys! We’re here, finally! The new trainees that John mentioned are here too. Come meet them!”

Dot seems more excited for Justice and I to meet the others than we are to meet them. I suddenly feel my stomach knot with uncertain dread…

The group of four walks towards us. There are three girls and one boy among them. The boy and the tallest girl have an undeniable, bold image that I notice right upon seeing them. Is this intimidation? Next I see the fangs. These two are definitely vampires… This must be the overbearingness Dot had mentioned.

The other pair of girls however, give off the exact opposite energy. The smallest one simply has a sweet and innocent smile on her face, as her eyes are entirely covered by too long bangs. The other girl looks almost as if she is the one that’s nervous to meet us. She holds her hands clasped together, but her fingers twitch without control.

Dot: “Luke, Justice this is Zora and Lilla…..”

Dot gestures to the tall female vampire and the small girl with her hair in her eyes.

Dot: “…..and this is Link, and that’s Ginger.”

The boy, Link, has rather large, spiky dark hair with streaks of various shades of red and blonde in the front. His face seems to have one of those permanently anguished expressions. The girl named Ginger has, well, ginger hair. And, her pale face reminds me of a ghost from a horror movie….but this could likely just be from her nervousness.

Zora opens her mouth wide to speak, wider than is usually required for speaking. Her teeth are a bit crooked and sharp looking, but her fangs are prominent. Her teeth must be the first thing people notice about her, I suspect. That and her interesting asymmetrical haircut.

Zora: “So, you are the one that almost burned down Blackember Academy….. Now that sounds really exciting! Did the flames blow up like fireworks, or was it a complete surprise?! I bet it went ‘BOOM’ and blasted the whole place up…….”

Luke: “Uh, well, that’s not exactly what happened…..”

Justice: “Yeah, and you should be glad it didn’t! What’s with everyone hating on Blackember Academy?!”

Zora: “Hey dude, calm down a notch. What’s your problem? Is the headmaster your dad, or something?”

Justice: “Uh, yeah actually, he is…..”

I think Justice was trying to sound confident or menacing just now, but did not sound that way…..

Link: “That Blackember Academy is no good. Just a bunch of damn losers at that school. They think they’re special with their good grades and rich parents….. I bet those kids have no souls, just statistics and exam scores….”

Ginger: “Link! Ummmm, please don’t be so vulgar. Remember what I said about meeting new people? You need to have some manners….”

Link: “Do you think someone who's going to be a successful rockstar cares about manners? I don’t give a damn….”

Link has a smug grin on his face as he shoves his hand in his pockets. He completely disregarded Ginger’s advice with his last comment…. Despite his attitude however, I somehow get the impression that Link has some softness within him…..Maybe it's in his face that I see this, with his round eyes and full, sincere brows. I wonder if he will ever show a less abrasive side to him…..

Ginger’s face turns bright red. She must be embarrassed for Link, if not for herself for having to put up with him.

Dot: “Alright then….. Now that everyone is well acquainted with each other, let’s get to the task at hand. Zora, fill us in on the current situation, please!”

It impresses me how Dot remains so positive, regardless of the awkward moment we have found ourselves in.

Zora: “Well, I was just about to bust open this garden shed over here. You see, the vampire that did this must have the ability to turn things into stone because this shed that would normally be made from wood is now….. rock solid, and the door can’t be opened. Oh, and the victim is stuck inside. Yeah, it's pretty bad, but it should be no problem for me!”

Zora cracks her knuckles.

Ginger: “You’re forgetting something…. Those poor, innocent bystanders on the front porch. Oh dear, I can already imagine how VLAD is going to scold us for letting such a thing happen….”

Link: “Yeah, that vampire must have gone insane, or something. There’s two guys on the porch and they’ve been completely turned to stone. Speaking of that nutty vampire, we don’t know where the guy is. We think he’s still here, but he’s hiding inside the house somewhere and we can’t get in.”

Dot: “I see….. Okay, Zora and Lilla, the three of us will help you with opening the stone shed. We can question the vampire’s kismet after. Link, you and Ginger should search around the house. See if you can find a way in, or if you catch a glimpse of the vampire perpetrator. That sound good?”

In agreement with Dot's plan, all of us get to work. I can’t believe that all of this is happening in one day. First I find out that I’m half vampire and now I don’t know what normal even is anymore! Do I even dare wonder what is going to happen next?

Dot walks ahead of Justice and I, she catches up with Zora and Lilla. We approach the odd structure at the side of the yard. The grey stone looks cold and rough. It looks more like some sort of tomb, rather than a garden shed.

Zora: “Okay! Let’s get this on the go!”

Zora cracks her knuckles once more. She starts stretching her arms, as if she’s about to take a swing at something.

Dot: “Wait Zora! Don’t break into it just yet…. What if the stone collapses onto the person stuck inside? You need to direct the blow to a small area, okay?”

Zora: “Yeah, that’s true…. I’ll be careful…. Well, as careful as I can be….”

Before Zora can do whatever it is she plans on doing to the stone shed, we hear a muffled noise come from within it.

Trapped Person: “…….Can you just hurry up?…..Please…..I'm running out of air….in here….”

Zora prepares to break into the shed once again, but is interrupted by Lilla this time. Lilla tugs on Zora’s sleeve.

Lilla: “Ummm, Zora, over there, on the tree, I saw a squirrel. It had a big, fluffy tail. It was so cute….. I wrote a poem about it….”

Lilla hesitates before showing Zora a small, pink notebook, opened to one of the pages. Zora takes the notebook from Lilla without a second thought. Her eyes move from side to side as she reads the poem Lilla has written.

Zora: “…….Lilla…. This is…..so beautiful! I can’t believe it! I’m so proud of you!……. Thank you, Lilla….”

Zora makes a wiping motion with her hand underneath her eyes. Is she crying?! She takes a deep breath, lifts her head up and smiles.

Zora: “Alright! Let’s do this!”

I hear Justice mumble.

Justice: “What’s with these people?!”

All of us watch as Zora steps up to the stone garden shed. She rolls her sleeves up and pulls her arm back preparing to swing at the stone wall.

Luke: “Hold on! You’re not going to punch into that thing, are you?! You’ll break your whole arm!”

Zora: “Huh? Of course I am! Don’t worry, I’m not breaking anything except for this stone shed. Just watch!”

Zora throws her punch and her fist comes into contact with the side wall of the shed. She gives out a quick yell with the force of her blow. It's as if the stone underneath her fist ripples like water, breaking into many pieces and falling to the ground. Almost as if there was a tiny shock wave that came from the impact of Zora’s fist alone. There is now a person sized hole in the side of the shed.

Zora turns around with her hands on her hips. She has a proud smile displayed on her face, crooked teeth gleaming in the sunlight.

Zora: “Haha! What do you think of that? My last name isn’t Stone for nothing! I can bust through stone like that without even breaking a sweat!”

She poses like some sort of comic book superhero with her fists in the air.

Justice: “What I think is that you’re insane! You just… You…”

I grab Justice and cover his mouth with my hand before he can go any further, ranting about how he is surrounded by crazy people that will put him in harm’s way, or something like that…. He really needs to learn when to cool it!

Justice: “….Hey!…..What do you think you’re….doing?!”

He spits as he tries to talk through my hand.

Luke: “Zora, that really was….something. How did you do that?”

Zora: “What you just saw was the true awesomeness of my magnificent, supernatural ability!”

Lilla stands beside Zora and claps her hands, clearly impressed as well.

Dot: “Zora’s ability is very cool! And, she’s really strong too! She can create shock waves through the force coming from her own body, focusing her energy on the individual atoms of an object. That was awesome, indeed!”

Dot now claps for Zora as well.

I catch Justice rolling his eyes….

I simply stand and watch the three girls, somewhat in disbelief of the whole situation. As soon as the applause quiets down, the person that had been trapped inside the stone garden shed (that we all seem to have forgotten about) emerges from the hole in the wall.

The person, who I now see is a woman, looks disoriented as she hobbles out of the shed, squinting as she comes into the sunlight. Her hair, clothes and glasses are covered in dirt and dust, probably from bits of broken stone that fell when Zora shattered the wall.

Dot quickly walks over to the woman.

The Woman: “It’s about time you kids got me out of there….. I thought I was going to suffocate….and die!”

Dot: “We’re terribly sorry Miss…. Please, can you tell us what happened? Where is the vampire that did this to you?”

The Woman: “Oh gosh, I don’t have a clue. He’s probably hiding in the attic, or somewhere…. I hope he’s at least thinking about what he’s done….”

Dot: “The vampire, why did he trap you inside the garden shed? Did the two of you have an argument?”

The woman takes a seat on an old tree stump and begins to recount her story to the five of us.

The Woman: “Well, you could say that….. It's more like he’s become totally obsessed with me though. His name is Rocky. I’ve known him since I was young. He used to come around here nearly everyday. This house was my childhood home…. When I was kid, Rocky and I would search for stones and pebbles to add to my rock collection. We would always look for the prettiest ones…. Things were fine back then, but now it's a whole other story…. You see, once I got older and moved out, Rocky didn’t like the fact that I was never around anymore. Since I got a job, I spent more time in the city and eventually my parents moved away from this place as well. They didn’t sell this house though. It's just been left empty for whenever I would return, though I didn’t plan to do so.”

The Woman: “I guess while I’ve been staying in the city, Rocky became distressed with my absence. It really agitated him….. I hadn’t seen Rocky in a very long time, until one day Rocky came to my work and started making a scene. I was so mad at him! I yelled at him and told him I was going to lose my job if he continued harassing me, but he kept coming back…. So, eventually I did end up losing my job. That was one week ago. I decided to come back here temporarily to try and recuperate, but that didn’t work out…. He’s just a vampire who doesn’t know when it's time to let go…. I know how the kismet thing works, but he’s ruined my life!”

All of us are silent, contemplating the woman’s unfortunate tale.

From far ahead at the front of the house however, Link and Ginger call to us.

Ginger: “Hey you guys! Come look at this!”

Link: “It’s the stone people. One of them is moving his eyes around!”

Ginger: “Oh no! What are we going to do, Link?! What if they’re going to be stuck as stone people forever?! There’s living people in there and we can’t get them out! They will be prisoners in stone for the rest of their lives!”

Link: “How am I supposed to know what to do? You’re the smart one, not me!”

Ginger: “Aaaaahaha….”

Ginger begins to sob uncontrollably. We make our way over to them before Ginger can have a mental breakdown. So far, my experience with my first VLAD mission has taught me to try my best to keep calm in these kinds of situations.