Page 3 of Crimson Shadows
I’m barely listening to him. My mind keeps drifting back to that night. The night I thought I saw fangs gleaming in his mouth as he recoiled from the cross my mother thrust at him. The memory is so vivid, so real, that I can almost hear the rain lashing against the windows, feeling the chill that ran down my spine.
“Adelaide?” Randall’s voice pulls me back to the present. “Are you listening?”
I blink, focusing on him again. “You were saying?”
He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I was trying to explain why I couldn’t be in your life. Your mother wanted to raise you as a human child, keep who you really are from you.”
Mum hisses as he says this, appearing to throw her under the proverbial bus for whatever lies are about to be spewed. “Human child,” I murmur as my brain catches up. “What else would I be?”
Randall opens his mouth to answer, but a flash of lightning illuminates the room, followed closely by a crack of thunder that seems to shake the foundations of our small, terraced house.I jump slightly, my heart racing. The clock on the mantelpiece chimes 9:00 PM.
Randall leans forward, placing a black envelope on the coffee table between us. My name is written on it in elegant gold script: Adelaide Légère.
“What is this?” I ask, my voice sounding strange.
Randall’s lips curl into a smile that I want to say is sinister but isn’t quite. “It’s your admission acceptance to MistHallow University.”
I frown. “I’ve never heard of it.” I glance at my mother again, but her expression remains unchanged.
Randall leans back in his chair, studying me with those unnaturally dark eyes. “You’re special, Adelaide. You’re what we call a Vesperidae – a being of two worlds. Half-vampire, half-human. MistHallow’s mission is to provide education and guidance to young supernatural beings. It’s a safe haven for those who need to learn control, for troubled souls who need focus and direction.”
His words wash over me as I struggle to process what he’s saying. A Vesperidae. Half-vampire, half-human.
The words hit me like a physical blow. I should be shocked, in disbelief. But as the revelation sinks in, all I feel is relief. Suddenly, all the dark thoughts that have plagued me for years, the strange urges and desires I’ve tried to suppress, seem to make sense.
“I’m a full-blooded vampire,” Randall continues as if this is the most natural conversation in the world and not one that has blindsided me despite my ready acceptance to believe I’m not just fucked up in the head. “One of the oldest and most powerful of our kind. Your mother is human, which makes you what we call a Vesper – a rare and uniquely gifted individual.”
“So you’re a vampire,” I say, my voice flat. “A full-blooded vampire who decided to have a child with a human woman. And then you abandoned us for twenty-one years.”
Randall’s expression hardens. “It wasn’t that simple, Adelaide. The supernatural world is complex, filled with ancient laws and customs. Your mother didn’t want you growing up in that world.”
“You keep blaming her, but all I see are excuses,” I snap. “Youhada choice. If you’re this powerful creature, you could’ve fought harder.”
“Not against the witchcraft.”
“What?” I look at my mother, who just sighs and shrugs slightly. “You’re a witch?”
She shakes her head, apparently dumbstruck.
“Vespers are incredibly rare, Adelaide,” Randall interjects on her behalf. “You have abilities that some full-blooded vampires can only dream of. There are factions in our world who would stop at nothing to control you, to harness your power for their own ends.”
I laugh, but there’s no humour in it. “Powers? What powers? I’m just a normal girl. Well, a normal girl with some serious issues, but still.” But there is no denying his words strike a chord deep in my morally grey soul. Automatically, I rub my wrist where thin, silvery scars crisscross my skin. For the first time in years, I don’t feel the usual shame associated with them. Instead, it’s as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. There is a reason for all this fuckery.
“The darkness that you’ve felt all these years,” Randall says softly, “the urges you’ve tried to suppress – that’s your vampire nature. It’s been lying dormant, waiting to be awakened.”
How does he know all of this?
My throat goes dry. “And MistHallow? What’s its role in all this?”
“MistHallow University is a place where young supernatural beings like yourself can learn to control and harness their abilities. It’s not just for Vespers or other hybrids, but full-blooded vampires, fae, elementals, and countless other creatures you’ve only read about in stories.” He leans forward again, his eyes intense. “At MistHallow, you’ll learn about your heritage, about the supernatural world that exists alongside the human one. You’ll develop your powers under the guidance of experienced mentors.”
I sit back, my mind reeling from all this new information. Part of me wants to dismiss it all as an elaborate joke or a vivid hallucination. But deep down, in a place I’ve always tried to ignore, something resonates with Randall’s words.
It explains so much. My obsession with blood, and pain and death; my depression and malaise during the daylight hours and night when I come alive; my aversion to being touched because my skin feels too sensitive, too fragile like ancient paper that will crumble if you breathe too heavily near it; my dislike of other people,humans, who don’t seem to understand me and write me off as the emo goth girl with too much drama, the list goes on.
“Say I believe you,” I say slowly, my eyes on the clock as it ticks over to 9:05 PM. “Say I accept that I’m this... Vesperidae. What happens now?”
Randall gestures to the black envelope on the table. “Now, you have a choice. You can continue to live in the human world, ignoring your true nature and struggling to fit in. Or you can accept your place at MistHallow and learn to embrace who you truly are.”
