"Once you're done collecting the model, you can shut the lights off for me," Professor Mark told me.
"Sure, I'll gladly do that," I consented that I would before he stepped out for his lunch break.
It was already lunch, so I decided it was time to call it a day and go home. I had already gathered my extra work from my other classes because I wasn't planning on coming tomorrow. Since Stella was busy with her brother, she packed part of the globe model and some clay with her to catch up on it. So I decided to do the same. Between us both being absent, we were falling behind on getting the project done.
After I was done filling my small box with the supplies I needed, I sauntered over to the door to leave, but it shut in my face and locked on its own. With a loud crashing thud, my box dropped to the floor in my panic, and I yanked on the hooked doorknob.
"Hello, is somebody there!" I yelled, banging my palm on the long rectangular window, but not one person was in the hallway. I tried twisting the doorknob to loosen it, but it wouldn't budge left or right.
"Hello!"
"Hahaha," a sudden sinister chuckle resounded like a far away echo came bouncing off the walls. Coldness chilled the research room as I panted nervously while I scanned the room, pacing around slowly.
Light bulbs flickered as my shaky voice stammered. "Rex..."
"Haha, trust me, my Angel—" Breath fanned into my right ear "—You'd wish it were him instead of me."
I gasped, whipping around in a three-degree circle, but I didn't see who lurked in this room with me.
"Who are you!" I spat as my chest heaved before he suddenly whipped past my left. My blood froze, making every hair on my body stand like icicles, and my panting breath became stifled into a faint rasp.
"Someone who's been dying to get acquainted with you," he taunted.
"Stop playing around, you Hunter!" I dauntlessly snapped. "You can't harm me until after the vote!"
"Do you hear that?" he asked just before the hand clock on the wall began to tick louder.
"Time is ticking away, my Angel. Before too long, I'll be sinking my fangs—" he suddenly rubbed my cheekbone with his Phantom-like hand "—into your smooth skin."
I backed up against a table, heaving air through my panged chest. "Stay away! I'm not in the mood for your twisted games," I snapped louder, and his laughter echoed through the chilly air.
"Ivan! Ace! Rome! Jack! Glenn! Anybody, please help me!" I summoned all of Kai's advisors in my head as a big black contorted puff of smoke swirled into a silhouette tall figure to the floor.
In front of my eyes, a Phantom-like vampire unmasked into his solidified appearance. He dressed in an all-black long chic trench coat that he wore over his black trousers, and a black button-down stylish dress shirt that was bedizen with silvery buttons. His nose was pointy at the tip, yet straight, and his mouth was thinner on his upper lip compared to his bottom lip. He had an ideal golden tan like Kai, and his facial features were between a diamond and an oblong shape. His cheekbones were slightly high, and his jaw was defined and narrow. Lastly, his short stylish hair was ink-black and spiked, which enhanced his bloodred hooded eyes to look scarier. His height made me feel like a mouse, and I did not like that one bit. Aside from his handsome features and well-defined muscles, he downright creeped me out. Not to mention, his grin was too malign for me to find him alluring.
His strong voice emitted, "I'm not a Hunter, my Angel."
"Then what are you?" I played his game and decided to question him while I waited for someone to help me.
"A Dark," he curtly answered.
I whispered in bewilderment, "A Dark?"
"What?" he chuckled, "You never heard of a Dark?"
"I've heard of a Light but not of a Dark," I uttered before I swallowed the raw hot feeling in my throat. I faintly remember seeing a book inside Mr. Collin's library that was labeled as Darks, but I didn't consider it to be another vampire species. I recalled to myself as I watched him intensely.
He curled the left corner of his mouth into a smirk. "The Lights are known to be the gentlest, and the Predatory are known to be the most dangerous. Then the Slithers and the Wings are comparable, but the wings are nicer like Lights, and the Slithers are malefic like their serpents. And the Beast-horned vampires are the moodiest temperamental bunch you'll ever come across, while the Hunters like to play their games. Then the Shapeshifters enjoy thriving in their animal fur, and the Nightshifters thrive during the night, while the Chameleons love reversing their hair or facial characteristics. Oh, and let's not forget about the Shadows. They like to feast themselves on sinners. So now, where do you think that leaves me?" he seemingly riddled me, and I had to say, I felt like he vilipend my existence.
Hence, there was no point in mentioning that I never heard of the Shadow species or Nightshifters. "I don't know," I shake my head, not liking his toying game.
"The evilest," he breathed out through his baleful voice before the door busted down.
Rome and Kai's twenty guardians launch inside to attack him, but he quickly turns into a cloud of smoke and flips them all on their butts in one swoop when his smoky shadow rammed into them. Then his cloudy black shadow flees, laughing fiendishly out the entrance.
"I hate that Dark!" Rome growled before he got off the floor, and he rushed over to me. "Did he hurt you, Princess?" he checked over my body as I gestured with my head that he didn't.
"Please, take me home," I shakingly stuttered.
On the double, everyone gathered my stuff, and then Rome drove us back to the mansion. Like a crazy pregnant lady on a mission, I go to the bedroom to see if Kai has woken up. Upon going inside, I was in for another shocker when I saw Kai's condition only worsened. Across his chest and stomach had dried into a hardened mummified corpse, and his right arm was now discoloring into an uglier brown. Nothing but worry caused my mind to draw a blank when I hustled over to his bedside, and started shaking his bony shoulders.
"You can't do this to me, please wake up!" I pleaded before my face rested on the faint pitter-patter sound of his beating heartbeat. "You're scaring me! I need you! I can't handle these vampires harassing me about my final hours! Everybody is afraid of you, so wake up already!"