A week went by with little else to tell of. Ally and Sade went on as if that Friday night didn’t happen, and Dominic slowly began to come back to visit Ally when Sade was in the dorm room. Life went on. The trees lost all of their green; the sign that fall was ready to kick in full blast. The weather had also begun to change in that little time period. What was once brisk with the occasional wind now became cold with an almost constant wind.

So the following Friday things continued the way they had been. It was like the prior weekend never happened. The weekly soccer game would commence on the soccer field at six, thanks to the field lights. So that meant there was a pep rally from four-thirty until game time.

The pep rallies were attended by most if not all of the students. They would draw the attention of people who didn’t even go to that school also. By four forty-five you could find over seven hundred people on the field cheering on the school’s soccer team, the majority of these people would leave before the game took off, but they would be replaced by the other team’s crowd.

At five o’clock the only people who were not on the field were Sade, Ally, and Dominic. They were of course in the girl’s dorm room talking. Dominic was sitting on the floor bouncing a red rubber ball off of the floor so that it would soar over Sade’s bed and hit the wall, and then would come flying back towards him. Ally was on her bed studying French II and Physics, seemingly simultaneously. Sade was sitting on her bed reading a book that she hadn’t looked up from in two hours.

Bounce.

“Will you please just come with me?” Dominic asked. “Just this one game and I promise I won’t ask again until next season.”

Bounce.

“Dominic I’ve been going to these games for fifteen years, they’ve lost their meaning,” Ally replied.

Bounce.

Dominic caught the ball and looked up. Ally in turn looked down at him. He had somehow managed to go from a normal looking kid to extremely pathetic, and it seemed to be working on Ally. “Ten minutes,” he asked.

Sade laughed as she got off of her bed and said, “It looks like I’ll see you at the game after all Ally.” She left her book on her bed and started to leave the room.

“If you’re leaving, put your book away please,” Ally asked. She gestured to the abandoned book on Sade’s unmade bed.

“I’m just going to the bathroom, I’m coming back to continue reading,” Sade replied. “If you want me to put it away for one minute, just so I can come back and take it out again, I can do that. But I really don’t want to go through the trouble.” Sade left the room.

“So are you coming with me or not?” Dominic asked. He started bouncing the ball again.

Bounce.

“How about we change the subject?” Ally suggested.

Bounce. The ball’s course suddenly changes and didn’t make it back to Dominic, instead it bounced off of the wall and landed on the bed, beside Sade’s book.

“What’s she reading?” Dominic asked. He left the ball on the floor and raised his head to look at the book on Sade’s bed.

Ally shrugged. “I don’t know. She got it in the mail on Monday afternoon. The weird thing is that she finished it on Monday too. She wouldn’t take her nose out of it for more than thirty seconds, literally. Then she started rereading it on Tuesday, and since then she’s been rereading it,” Ally explained.

Dominic had inched his way over during all of Ally’s explanation and was already looking through the book. His eyes were wide and he had a horrified expression on his face, but he didn’t stop looking through the book.

“Dominic, are you okay?” Ally asked. She took the book away from Dominic gently and looked at it.

The book was leather and old. On the front cover was a worn indentation the same as on Sade’s infamous necklace. The pages of the book were handwritten, all of them and there seemed to be at least three hundred. Each page went into extreme detail about some creature referred to as Vyrkolaka throughout all of the text. A lot of the pages had diagrams of jaws, outlines of humanlike forms, and what seemed to be bite marks. The handwriting differed throughout the entire book. The first few pages were written with a flowing cursive writing, later that changed to blocky text, and after that the writing was chicken scratch; Ally couldn’t make heads or tails of it. All of the diagrams were consistent though. They all had clear notes. All of the notes regarding the diagram were strangely all written by the same person though.

The door to the dorm opened and Sade walked in. Without seeing Dominic’s horrified expression and Ally’s utter confusion, she said, “So when I was walking to the bathroom I saw that Kelly Johnson and Katie Cortez’s door was open a little. Thanks to the wind the door opened a bit more and I happened to see that one of them has a complete copy of next Thursday’s English test.” Sade stopped talking and looked at her roommate and Dominic. “What’s with you guys?” Sade asked. Her eyes shifted to her book in Ally’s hands. “Ally I know that you can be nosey, and I accept that, but when I come into the room, that’s when you hide the fact that you were reading my book.”

Dominic crossed his arms protectively and said quietly, “You’re one of them.” Dominic’s face completely drained of color, including most of his yellow.

“One of who?” Sade asked in return. She took her book from Ally and put it on her desk. “Ally what’s he talking about?”

“I don’t know. He started reading your book and he just froze,” Ally explained. “Dominic are you okay?”

With a voice that was barely above a whisper, Dominic said, “I’m going to be sick.” Ally hurried over to him and felt his forehead like a mother would for her child.

“Oh my gosh, you’re freezing,” Ally said with surprise. She ripped the blanket off of her bed and grabbed the waste can from beside the door. She placed the waste can beside Dominic and wrapped the comforter around him. “Did you take that medicine today?” Ally asked. “Sade, go find someone.”

Dominic’s nose had a trickle of blood coming out of it. “I shouldn’t have today, it’s only every other day,” he replied quietly.

“Medicine for what?” Sade asked.

“I don’t know. I just know he has to take a lot of medicine,” Ally replied. “Go get help!”

“Everyone’s at the field for the pep rally for the game.” Sade looked at Dominic who was now shivering violently. “You saw this before, right?” Sade asked as she pulled out the black pendent that was hanging around her neck.

Dominic nodded.

Ally was now pulling the comforter off of Sade’s bed and adding it to the heap of blankets around Dominic. Meanwhile Sade was rapidly paging through her notebook skimming the pages in a hurry.

“Sade what are you doing?” Ally exclaimed. She felt Dominic’s forehead a second time. “Run to the field and get help.

“That’s a five minute sprint Ally and at least another five minutes to get someone,” Sade replied, still leafing through the book. She finally stopped on one page. Sade read the page and examined Dominic, read the page again and looked at Dominic again.

“Dominic, you know what this book is about right?” Sade asked.

Dominic nodded.

“So you’ve been bitten before, right?”

Dominic shuddered as he nodded a second time.

“How much do you take?” Sade asked as she started to rip through her chest and pulled out the box with syringes and other medicines.

“500 milligrams, every other day,” Dominic replied.

“Sade! Why do you have syringes in our dorm room?” Ally exclaimed.

Sade ignored her and prepared a syringe with the clear liquid from one of the bottles. She nearly emptied that particular bottle. “Jesus Christ! How long have you been taking this? 500 mg’s would kill a normal person.”

“What are you doing with that? Why is it here in our room?” Ally asked. She looked petrified. “You can’t stick him with that. It’s not sterile. You don’t even know what medicine he takes you can kill him.”

“Ally, shut up! I have a pretty good idea of what medicine he takes,” Sade replied. She tapped the syringe and asked Dominic, “This is more effective if it is injected at the bite. Where were you bit?”

Dominic replied simply, “Pick an arm.”

“Ally, roll up his right sleeve,” Sade replied.

“What does he mean pick an arm?” Ally asked as she rolled up his sleeve.

“I don’t know but-” Sade suddenly stopped talking.

Dominic’s yellow arm had bite marks going the entire length of his arm. The bites were all the same, and probably from the same creature. They looked human, except for the place where the canine teeth would have been it was more prominent. Those marks went deeper and they were a deeper red too.

“Oh my gosh, Sade what is that?” Ally asked.

Sade didn’t answer. Instead she simply injected the syringe into Dominic’s arm in the center of one of the bites. After taking the syringe out Dominic stopped shivering. He slowly regained his color and drifted easily off to sleep.

Ally was now sitting with her back against the wall. “What just happened?” she asked.

Sade threw the syringe in the trash bin and sighed. “You didn’t believe me last week, why would you believe me now?” she replied.

“Maybe because you said vampires last week,” Ally answered. “Just tell me why you just injected 500 milligrams of something into my best friend.”

“Because if I hadn’t, he wouldn’t be your friend anymore,” Sade replied. “Without this medicine, Dominic can… die.”

“You said that as much as he takes will kill a person though,” Ally reminded Sade. “You just gave him a lethal dosage of something.”

Sade reorganized the box of medicine as she explained, “You know how if you take too much painkillers, they stop working, and you need more. It’s the same with drugs too. You smoke one joint a day to stay happy and eventually one joint doesn’t do it, you need two joints, and eventually you need to move on to something else, something bigger than joints. It’s the same way with this medicine.” Sade put the box safely away in the chest.

“So he’s been taking this medicine for a while?” Ally clarified. “What’s the medicine for?”

Sade searched through the dorm room before answering. When she found her book, she placed it in her chest also. “A… blood infection,” Sade replied.

“So why do you have a shoebox full of drugs for this particular blood infection?” Ally asked. “It just seems a little odd that you happen to know that Dominic has this particular infection without ever asking him, then you have a shoebox of medicine especially for it.”

Sade unwrapped one of the comforters from Dominic and placed it on her bed. Without answering Ally, she made the bed. Sade then opened the chest and pulled out some photographs.

“Sade, are you going to answer me?” she asked.

“I don’t plan to.”

Ally glanced at Dominic. He was asleep, but it looked as if he were barely asleep, as if anything could wake him up. He was still wrapped in Ally’s blanket. His head was tilted to the side and being supported only by his left shoulder. He looked like a rag doll that had been thrown aside and later covered up with blankets.

“I wish you would answer me,” Ally replied.

Sade snorted and beckoned for Ally to join her. Ally did so and sat beside Sade. Sade handed a photograph to Ally.

The picture was old, not black and white old, but at least ten years old. It was taken in front of a small cathedral. It was evening, the sun barely shown through the clouds. In the center of the photograph were a man, a woman, a small child, and a priest. The woman looked to be in her twenties. She was paler than the rest, she looked sickly. She was dressed for cold with a full length tweed coat. Her hair was black, long, and straight. It came to her waist almost. The man was about the same age as the woman. He had a beard beginning to form on his face. His hair was also black, however unlike the woman’s it was thick and wooly. He too dressed for cold, only his jacket was black, and it looked like leather. The small child looked to be about five or six. It was hard to tell whether it was a boy or a girl though because its hair was cut short for a girl, but long for a boy. Its clothes consisted of a red winter coat, jeans, and winter boots. The priest was old. He was in his sixties in the photograph. He wore the traditional garb of a catholic priest. Everybody in the picture looked sad, except for the child whose smile was missing one of its front teeth.

“That’s me, my dad, Father Jani, and my mom,” Sade replied. “My mom had the same infection, only the medicine didn’t exist at the time. She didn’t make it through the night. Once you have this infection you have very little time to get medicine. I’ve knew more than fifteen people die because of this. I have this medicine because I don’t want to know anymore people who have died because of it.”

“Sade what aren’t you telling me?” Ally asked. “You’re beating around the bush. I’m not stupid. I can tell that you’re hiding something.”

“No, I’m not Ally. I told you last week,” Sade replied. “You didn’t believe me, remember?”

“Sade, do you expect me to believe that vampires exist?” Ally shouted.

Dominic opened his eyes and squinted at Ally. “Ally, they do,” he replied. He pulled the blanket over his head and covered himself completely.

“So everyone knows except for me,” Ally said sarcastically. She threw her arms in the air and flopped down on her bed.

Sade pulled opened up her chest and began placing all of the items inside on the bed. Among those items were the shoebox, the notebook, a piece of wood, and more photographs.

“Ally, listen,” Sade began. “Every myth is based on fact. Don’t you find it odd that every culture in the world has a myth about vampires? These are cultures that have never intermingled and yet they share the belief in vampires. Doesn’t that tell you that maybe there’s some creatures out there that feed on flesh and blood and are actually dead?”

Ally added, “There are also stories around the world about Big Foot. Do you believe that he’s real too?”

“Yes, but we haven’t found him yet,” Sade replied. “Vampires even exist in society today, only these are regular living people who have the absurd need to drink blood to stay strong.” Sade picked up the pile of photographs and searched through them until she found one of a paled man.

The photograph was a close up of the man’s face. His skin was a strange grey color and his eyes were bloodshot. He was smiling, almost. He was actually showing his teeth, his canines to be precise. They were pointed.

“A vampire I suppose,” Ally said.

Dominic shook his head furiously from under the blanket.

“You can’t even see the picture,” Ally told him.

“Can you see him?” Dominic asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then it isn’t. They can’t be in a lot of light and a flash in the darkness would be like torture.”

Ally looked at Sade. “He’s right,” Sade replied. “That’s a picture of someone only minutes before they turn.

“They turn what?”

“Into a vampire. After they are bitten you have, on average, a week before you turn, unless you manage to get medicine.” Sade gave the box of medicine a little shake. “The sooner you get the medicine, the longer you can take it.”

“So that means that…” Ally looked at Dominic. “You were bit by one?”

Dominic shuddered under the comforter.

“But when? You don’t leave the campus.”

“Bufureiycumair,” Dominic answered, his voice muffled by his knees. He was curling up into the fetal position from under the blanket.

“What?” Sade and Ally asked together.

“Before I came here,” Dominic replied as his head shook its way through the blankets. “I was little.”

“How long have you been taking the medicine?” Sade asked.

“Seven years,” Dominic replied. He hugged his knees from under the blanket.

There was silence in the room.

After several minutes Sade said, “So you were six?”

“No, it happened a year before that,” Dominic replied.

“There’s no way!” Sade exclaimed. “That’s impossible! You would have turned. The longest anyone has ever gone before they turned is two weeks.”

“It’s not impossible if you were bit every week,” Dominic replied bitterly. He once again buried his head under the blankets.

Sade bit her lip and asked, “You were mixed up in one of those feeding groups, weren’t you?”

The pile of blankets nodded and spat, “You should know. You have one of those fucking necklaces.”

Sade immediately reached for her necklace and replied, “Dominic this is the symbol of O’Doul. They find vampires and get rid of them!”

Dominic replied coldly, “Well they defiantly weren’t getting rid of them when I saw the necklace. In fact they were doing the opposite.”

There was once again silence in the room. Then suddenly Sade got up and pulled a backpack out of her closet.

“What are you doing?” Ally asked.

Sade grabbed, what seemed like random, articles of clothing from her closet into the backpack. She then swiped everything on the bed into the backpack as well. “I have to talk to someone,” Sade replied. She pulled the crucifix containing pocket from under her pillow and put it in the backpack. “Dominic should come too.”

Dominic shook his head. “I don’t want anything to do with that,” he said.

“Dominic, if there is someone in O’Doul who is in one of these sick feeding groups then they need to be stopped,” Sade said. “You’re the only who knows who it was. You need to come and hopefully help stop this for someone else.”

“I don’t care about someone else. I don’t want anything to do with that,” Dominic replied. He still wouldn’t come out from under the blankets.

“Dominic I have other drugs in those bloody vials also. If you don’t want to go fine, but I will drug you, and drag you along,” Sade said sharply. “There are little babies and small kids who are stuck in the same situation you were and if people from O’Doul really are doing this then it won’t stop. O’Doul are the only global group trying to wipe out vampires.”

Ally was still sitting on the bed. She cleared her throat and said, “I want to go also.”

Sade stopped packing for a moment and replied, “No. You are a liability. You can get bit or killed or something.”

“So can you or Dominic,” Ally pointed out. She glanced at the bundle of blankets leaning against her bed.

“However I know what I’m doing and as soon as Dominic tells us the who and the where, he’ll come back here,” Sade explained. She had finally finished putting things in her backpack when she looked down at Dominic. “Are you coming, or do I need to drug you?”

“Drug me,” Dominic replied.

“I’ll tie you up instead,” Sade replied. She went into her closet and emerged two seconds later with a long bundle of thin rope.