So, I suppose since you decided it was a great idea to read this little story, I should introduce myself and tell you a little bit about me. My name is Zach, and I am a senior in high school. I am a theatre tech for our schools drama department, and overall, I’m just your typical high school student. That is, I was, until something that is kind of a big deal happened.

I mean, to be perfectly honest it was kind of my fault, but how was I to know that there was going to be a freaking vampire just chilling out in the school parking lot? Us kids only grow up being told that things like ghosts and vampires aren’t real, so I’d appreciate if someone could tell me how I was supposed to be prepared for this.

This is what I get for staying after school and working on the stage until ten at night.

Staying behind at school until the teachers are forced to kick me out is a habit of mine, because I don’t really have anything to do at home. I’d much rather spend time helping build stuff and hanging out with a group of kids, than go home to be yelled at for an hour and then ignored for the rest of the night. That night was just like any of the others, except that this time I apparently wasn’t alone while walking to my car. Hearing the scuffle of the parking lots asphalt, I glanced behind me, but no one was there so I just shrugged off my paranoia and sped up a little bit. Fifteen feet from my car and I heard the sound again. Whipping my head around, I ran into a heavy black shadow and fell back. I raised my scraped hands to try to guard from the dripping fangs rapidly approaching-

And then I woke up. In the middle of the parking lot. I looked towards my shaking hands, unharmed except for the pebbles digging into my palms, and then patted myself down to see if I was actually hurt anywhere. Finding nothing, I pushed myself up to my feet and stumbled to my car, trying to shake off the hallucination that felt far to real.

The next day, sweating, suffering, and borderline crying, I started to panic. I had rushed home and locked myself in my room, paranoid that perhaps what happened was actually real. After an hour of nervous twitching and glances towards my curtained window, I finally calmed down and convinced myself that nothing had happened. I tried to sleep it off, but awoke every few minutes, and eventually gave up when my insides decided to start somersaulting. By the time the sun rose outside, I had been up for hours with intensifying pain, coupled by severe hunger. Debating to call the hospital, I forced myself to eat and drink, but nothing helped. Eventually my body gave in, and I blacked out for the second time in the last twenty four hours.

When I woke up, it was dark outside. The feverous shaking had subsided, and the hunger had dulled, but it was still there. It’s always there.

A sharp rapping on my bedroom door startled me out of my daze. My mothers angry voice bounced around in my ears as she banged on the door again.

“Get your lazy a** out of bed, Zach.” She shouted,” Or i'm coming in and dragging you to school.”

I didn’t know what to do so in a panicked voice I answered her. “I’m sorry! I’ll get ready, I just overslept!”. Her only reply was an impatient sigh and the sound of her footsteps stomping down the stairs.The door slammed behind her as she stormed out of the house and drove off. I let out a relieved sigh, and moved to get ready because even though I didn’t know if I was better, I couldn’t afford to miss more school than necessary.
Pulling on my jacket, and running out the door, an immediate problem occurred and I knew I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. As soon as I had walked out into the bright morning sun, my skin turned into an angry red mask, blistered, and then started to burn.  I don’t think I have ever been that fed up with the world that early in the morning. I ran back inside, tossing aside my half put on jacket and held my crisped hands out in front of me. With a look of extreme curiosity and horror, I watched as my skin lost its irritated color, and knit itself back together. I fell to my knees in disbelief as I realized that I had not hallucinated, and that something had gone very wrong with my life.

Having no way to leave the house without burning away, I holed up in my room and researched what little I could find on vampirism. Unfortunately, It’s so entangled in modern day literatures and old mythologies that no one really knows how things actually are. There was no way of knowing what I needed to survive, if there was anyone or anything that I needed to be wary of, besides the sun of course.

Cue to the next day after a sleepless night of zero results, I ventured outside. It was greeted by the misty aired twilight. Dawn was still a few hours away, and I needed to make a decision on whether I was going to risk school or not. With a deep breath, I marched back into the house and got ready to face fate. I couldn’t hide forever, nor did I intend to.

The day at school passed by relatively normal, despite my fidgeting and my paranoia of someone calling me out for seeming different. No one even looked twice at me though, and the first half of the day passed without incident. None of my tablemates questioned me when I came to the table without food, and everything was fine until the last period of the day, anatomy.

We were working with scalpels, and while the teacher insisted we all be very tedious when working with them because they were sharp, a group of boys in the back still decided to play with them as if they were toys. They swung them back and forth, pretending they were wielding swords, when one of them got to close to the other and managed to cut themselves all the way across their palm.

I froze, pinpoint focused on the bright red scratch slowly welling up with crimson. Instinct told me that that is what I needed to become better, and to not be sick anymore. A soft voice called my name, and I stumbled, realizing I was halfway across the room and approaching the boys. Every students eyes were on me, as I rapidly looked around, and with a split second decision, I ran out of the room. Everyone had watched me act like that, and would surely connect the dots.

I hid in the bathrooms, but was forced to come out when they called my name over the intercom. In the office I was greeted by the small boy who had called my name. His name was Vincent, and he was my partner for all of our anatomy experiments. My teacher was also there, and I apologized for running out.

“It’s alright, Zach. I just have a question for you.” My teacher spoke. “Why didn’t you tell me that you had a problem with seeing blood?”

I glanced over at Vincent in confusion, and his pale blue eyes sparkled as he grinned and winked at me. He had came up with a logical excuse and deferred the attention in a different direction. I mouthed thank you to him, and apologized to my teacher again. I went to the theatre after school and quickly fell back into my old routine.
I was known as the guy who was scared of papercuts for a week, but other than that nothing happened. Months had passed without many other incidents, and when they did happen I wouldn't show much more reaction than a slight flinch away. May finally came, and it was soon time to graduate. I had grown accustomed to the other aspects of my new abilities, and the things like super strength, night vision, and never having to sleep were pretty handy. And luckily for me I didn’t need to drink blood to survive, I just had to live with that ever present hunger, and I just had dark bags under my eyes constantly.

However, as time went on, I couldn't help but be mildly annoyed by some of my closest friends. They were with me every day, and they acted as if nothing had changed with me. Not once did they ask me how things were going or if anything had changed. I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, and I never went outside when the sun was up. Eventually I just got sick of it and snapped. I decided that the next day I went to school I was gonna tell my closest friends.

“Hey, you know I’m a vampire, right?” I asked

“Uh, What?”

“I am a vampire. You can't tell me you didn't notice the pale skin and the not sleeping part? Plus that whole not eating thing and never going out into the sunlight? Oh and let’s not even get started on the eyebags”
“Dude.” They gave me a long and unreadable look. “You’ve always been like that.”