Edgars Auziņš
Midnight Academy. Born at midnight
I even dared to touch one.
Having gone up to the second floor, we just as easily found ourselves in another room. It was almost no different from the previous one, but what is most striking is that we were greeted by the same Gray Lady with a face that did not express any emotions at all.
There were two options: either I had gone crazy, or my mother had gone crazy. However, it could not be ruled out that we had both been out of our minds for a long time.
Questions, questions, questions… Biting my tongue, I kept expecting that we would now meet with someone from the top of this mental hospital. With someone who will quickly and succinctly insert all the necessary information into my head, and then we will go on a new trip. Somewhere where the maniac who was pursuing us will definitely not get to.
But reality, as always, did not agree with the fantasies.
Silently nodding to the librarian, my mother took out a dagger with large red stones in the hilt from her jacket and suddenly turned to me. More precisely, to the door behind me, and therefore I had to actively step aside.
I watched, feeling confused, as she inserted the blade into the gap between the door and the floor. Repeating the outline of the doorway with its point, the mother straightened up and opened the door, turning the round gilded handle.
She let me go ahead.
I went down with caution. So far nothing has changed in the surroundings. The same staircase, the same walls and tops. Even the hall on the first floor is still the same. And the Gray Lady is the same. Stands there, doesn't blink.
Looking at my mother, I received a warm, indulgent smile. And it was a no-brainer that she knew something that I had no idea about yet. But the longer I had to wait for the explosion, the more terrible the pictures of my near future became.
And yet I was the first to go out onto the porch. She went out, looked around and almost counted the steps. The parent caught me by the shoulders literally at the last moment.
Her gaze again expressed understanding. She seemed to know how much confusion was in me now and what feelings and doubts were overwhelming me.
Now I was going down much slower. Firstly, because it finally dawned on me: instead of bright day, we were greeted by night. Secondly, the street was radically different from Ashwool Street. Instead of sprawling construction projects and brand new townhouses, there were long Victorian-style houses with white trim, carved corners and low railings around the balconies.
Two horses harnessed to a dark carriage rushed past us. Here and there there were passers-by who seemed to have stepped out of the pages of a history textbook or the frames of a pseudo-historical film.
“You will study here,” my mother said, as soon as we stopped at the gates of the academy, behind which stood a gloomy tall building with spiers and ugly gargoyles on the ledges.
“I’ve already graduated from school,” I reminded, forcing myself to stay in place by an effort of will.
It was simply unbearable to want to take even a couple of steps back.
– This is not a school, Sally. This is an academy for Midnighters.
Taking a large burgundy rectangular map from the inside pocket of her jacket, she placed it directly into the open mouth of the stone bat. The mouth instantly closed and opened with a click, leaving two impressive holes on the card. Then the gate next to the gate creaked open.
I was in no hurry to go inside.
“But you yourself said that I’m not like that.” What will I learn here then?
– Everything that I didn’t tell you about, because I recklessly believed that this side would never touch you. But she touched, which means you must be prepared for the fact that our world is not as simple as it seems at first glance. And he won’t find you here,” she was the first to go through the gate.
Without doubting for a moment, I immediately followed her, hoping to finally get an answer to the main question. Clenching my fingers into fists, I felt that the solution was already close.
– Who, mom? Who have we been hiding from all this time?
Silently continuing our way past the working fountain, on which stood an ugly stone gargoyle, she nevertheless responded dully, as soon as we reached the steps of the main building:
– From the Hunter.
But it didn’t become one gram clearer.
“Hey, you seem to be lost in thought,” Nirel touched my hand, pulling me out of recent memories.
Catching the attentive gaze of his green eyes, I directly and unvarnishedly blurted out what I knew about the Midnighters. There were only two theses: for some reason they do not sleep at night and maintain order in the world on both sides.
“Very generalized, of course,” he drawled slightly dissatisfied. – That is, you don’t know anything at all about where you ended up.
“Actually,” I confirmed dully. – We entered the library from one side and left from the other. I thought I had lost my mind.
Having carefully examined me from head to toe, the student made an unexpected conclusion:
– So you are one of the Coming Ones. – But, probably catching the misunderstanding on my face, he added: – From those who came from the world of people. And I’m wondering why your clothes and shoes are so strange. Okay, then let's start with the main thing. Our ancestors were not people.
“Of course, not people,” I agreed, suspecting that we would now plunge somewhere much deeper than the Stone Age. – Everyone knows that we descended from monkeys.
Nirel did not deny this fact:
– Once upon a time – perhaps. But then our ancestors chose a different path. They, Sally, became vampires.
Chapter 4. Secrets of the Midnighters
I tried to digest this information. I honestly tried, but even after what I had already learned and seen, I didn’t expect to hear something like that.
Simply because vampires are not superheroes at all. This is a pale, bony likeness of a person, living in a crypt, sleeping in a coffin and not knowing what toothpaste, solarium and manicure are.
“My mother is not a vampire,” I objected, having recovered from the first shock.
Smiling indulgently, Nirel corrected me:
– Not such a vampire as you used to think. Almost none of us have fangs anymore, because the need to drink blood has simply disappeared over the centuries. They don't grow anymore, see? – He showed me his even white teeth. – Now we take away unnecessary emotions from people in a different way.
– Do you take away unnecessary emotions? How? For what? – she asked, even more amazed.
So far everything has only become more confusing. Vampires without fangs and the need to drink blood are some kind of toothless vegetarians.
– It’s simple: people with an unstable psyche have moments in life when emotions take over them so much that they lose reason. Then they do things that affect the rest of the world. With their emotions they change the lives of other people, and mostly exclusively for the bad. For example, they commit a crime or become the cause of a series of accidents that lead to someone’s death. We – vampires – take away these “extra” emotions from them, thereby maintaining balance in the human world. Moreover, various emotions may turn out to be “superfluous” – even happiness.
– And before this you had to drink blood? – I clarified, grimacing.
My imagination quickly painted the entire procedure in the most vivid colors, including the nasty taste of metal in my mouth. I definitely wouldn’t agree to such an abomination, because…
What if a person is sick with something? Or haven't washed for a week?
I shuddered with disgust.
“It happened, but not for the last three generations,” Nirel confirmed. – Now, fortunately, this is not required. We have learned to do without this procedure. Now we take away dangerous emotions with the help of touch. Prolonged touch and slight hypnosis. If such emotions are not drawn out, then a skew will constantly occur, first in one direction, then in the other. Of course, problems happen despite the existing protocol of actions, but it’s better to do at least something than to do nothing, right?
I nodded, agreeing with the guy. If he was telling the truth, then the matter smacked of a fair amount of pessimism, because something out of the ordinary was happening in the world every day.
But on the other hand, I briefly imagined what the Earth would look like now if vampires had never existed. Probably, we would all simply die out and everything would go from scratch: bacteria, fish, monkeys, dinosaurs, cavemen. Maybe nature learned from its mistakes and therefore created vampires in the next round?
Actually, I asked the third-year student exactly this question.
“Maybe,” he answered slyly. – In any case, we are the protectors and balance of this world. And not only us. All Midnighters.
– Is there anyone else? Spiders? – I guessed.
But it turned out to be wrong. I'm not feeling good today. It’s understandable, there are so many new discoveries in less than a day, so much contradictory and at the same time incredible information that it’s time to go to bed as soon as possible with dreams that tomorrow will be different – normal.
– Not spiders. Transformation is Percy's special gift. Each vampire has his own special gift, but not all of them reveal it right away. For example, it hasn’t shown up for me yet.
Smiling with slight sadness, the guy quickly returned to our main topic:
– In addition to vampires, Midnighters also include werewolves, witches and hunters.
Having caught on to the most important word, I fidgeted on the bench with impatience.
– Hunters? Everything about the rest is more or less clear. Witches can cast spells, werewolves turn into animals, and hunters? Who is this anyway?
Nirel sighed heavily.
– Those for whom our existence does not allow us to live in peace. They consider us monsters and are trying in every possible way to rid the world of our presence. But don't get scared ahead of time. Let's just say that no one has seen them on this side of the border for a long time – since they crossed into the human world, so there is nothing interesting about them. Maybe they degenerated a long time ago.
Hearing the last phrase, with which the guy probably wanted to cheer me up, I smiled wryly. Because now I knew for sure that one annoying hunter still existed in the human world. Mom herself told me about this today, and I just didn’t know what to do with this information now.
How dangerous were they? Have they really degenerated or are they still hiding to hunt down vampires one by one? And my mother? Is she a vampire, a witch or a werewolf?
– Nirel, if I’m still a Midnighter, then who am I? Vampire or witch?
“Vampire,” he answered without a shadow of doubt.
– Why did you decide that? – I became stubborn.
It's not that I want to be a witch. In principle, I would prefer to remain a purebred person, but if I have to choose…
– Because Madame Pelisay named you Salaman Dragon. Your family is the oldest and largest among all vampire families.
– So I have many relatives? – I was puzzled.
Accustomed to the fact that my only family member was my mother, I did not expect such a catch. On the one hand, this news made me immensely happy, because I always wanted to have grandparents, brothers and sisters, and all these noisy, cheerful holidays when large families gather and give many, many gifts. But on the other hand…
Relatives could end up with foulbrood.
The third-year student brought me down to earth again:
– Not sure. Dragon is the common name of the genus, but from the first Dragon, according to history, many branches came. If I'm not mistaken, he had fourteen sons. There were also daughters, but each got married and received a new clan name. It’s better to ask your mother about your relatives when the opportunity arises.
“If it turns up,” I sighed, remembering how I had been waiting for answers for eighteen years, and how I still haven’t received some.
But I still had some clue. Madame Pelisay said that I am Dragon on my father's side. I wonder if he's still alive? And if so, why have I never seen him? Even if their relationship with his mother was truly accidental and for one night, had he really not been overcome by curiosity over all the years to find out who was born to him?
Or did his mother simply not tell him that she was pregnant?
– Listen, but it turns out that vampires can have children? – this fact perhaps struck me most of all.
This is the complete opposite of what was described in books and films!
Fun sparkled in Nirel's eyes.
– Naturally. We need to reproduce somehow. Any questions?
– But of course!
Sitting more comfortably, I turned my whole body to the guy.
– When we entered the library, it was daytime, but we left here at night. What's going on here? Are time zones different?
In response, he rolled his eyes, as if I had said complete nonsense. But I decided not to be offended, because it’s interesting.
– You could also say time zones. It is immediately obvious that you are one of the Coming Ones. It's always night on the Dark Side, Sally. All day long and at any time – and this has been the case for more than two centuries. It was the witches who cast witchcraft because those who were born exactly at midnight – at the junction between the days – do not feel well in the light of day. But vampires react to the sun more sharply than others. Our concentration decreases, drowsiness, loss of strength, and vulnerability appear. We are weakening before our eyes. And, by the way, about the eyes: they are sensitive to the sun. I heard that our people on the other side wear dark glasses or special hard lenses.
Lenses… I almost jumped on the spot with realization, because the guy told the absolute truth. Since childhood, my eyes would water and hurt terribly just by looking at the sun. I didn’t even remember when I first put on lenses: I was too small, but since then I haven’t gone outside without them.
The first thing I did in the morning was wash my face and insert my lenses. But even with them, our windows were always covered with thick curtains.
Nirel was right about everything. Even though these lenses were made of hard matter. They felt somewhere between glass and plastic.
Twitching, I wanted to show him the lenses, peacefully waiting in the wings in the pocket of my overalls, but I stopped myself in time. If I wanted everyone around me to consider me an ordinary person and let me go on all four sides in peace, then I shouldn’t show off my features.
Because any of these features already made me a vampire, and therefore a prisoner of the Midnighter Academy.
Since my guide turned out to be so talkative, chewing his lower lip, I nevertheless decided to ask a frank question:
– Nirel, are we monsters?
Thoughts about hunters haunted me. It’s not for nothing that they decided to exterminate vampires? Maybe there was something in history for which toothless vegetarians still felt ashamed?
– Sally, do I look like a monster? – they asked me unexpectedly softly, but quite seriously.
I defiantly looked him up and down.
– You? You are not.
– And you don't. So we are not monsters. Your mother said it right: we maintain balance in the human world. We help those who are on the verge of disaster, you know?
Taking my hand gently, he lightly stroked the back of my hand with his thumb. I froze in shock, afraid to even take another breath.
“Are you taking my emotions away now?” – she squeezed out, listening to her own body.
– What? No. Of course not. I just took your hand to support you. It must be difficult for you right now.
The third year student smiled humorously.
Instantly taking my hand away from him, I turned away and ruffled my feathers. All I needed right now was a guy who understood everything. I suddenly felt like I was at an appointment with a psychoanalyst, although I had no idea how they actually do all this, and not in a television show.
Taking a deep breath, she slowly exhaled. I needed to calm down and clear my head from unnecessary thoughts. After all, this guy had nothing to do with my problems, but rather was trying to help, so being angry at him made me act like an idiot.
“It’s not difficult for me,” I admitted, looking at the porch, because it turned out to be easier to talk that way. – I get used to new places pretty quickly, but the problem is that I don’t want to be here. And I don’t want to be a Midnighter either. My mother… She left now. And I can only guess where. At the same time, I don’t know what’s on her mind, will we see each other again, you know? I'm worried about her and…
Feeling other people's hands on my shoulders, I immediately tensed. I really didn’t expect Nirel to suddenly hug me and gently pull me towards her. His jacket, turtleneck and leather smelled deliciously of something woody, which made you want to run your nose over the exposed part of his neck.
He scared me. My reaction to him and his hugs scared me. The last tickling sensation in my chest also excited me at the same time, but at the same time I felt warm. In his strong hands it felt good and cozy, reliable and comfortable, as if we had already known each other for a thousand years.
I wonder how long vampires live? Here you will inadvertently believe in the transmigration of souls.
He gently stroked my back.
– Everything will be fine, Sally. Like I said, I'm sure your mom had good reasons for leaving you here. But look at it this way: you, like other students, need to develop your abilities. So do just this and by your next meeting you will be able to convince her that you have already learned everything and you have nothing to do here.
Pulling away from the guy, I looked into his emerald eyes and honestly admitted:
“I feel like a boy with a scar.”
– Pf-f-f! – he said mockingly. “You’re much cooler, believe me.” Could he do that?
A moment, and the guy was not on the bench. Turning my head, I saw him already standing on the porch of the freshman building.
– Or so? – he shouted, instantly moving to the fountain.
I even stood up from the bench, my mouth parted in amazement. I definitely saw this for the first time.
– Or so?
Now the guy stood on a thick branch of the tree closest to the bench, relaxing with one hand on the mighty trunk. All this time he moved so quickly that my eyes did not have time to catch anything at all. I stood there, hit on the head like a dust bag, sincerely admiring the abilities of others.
Abilities that brought Nirel straight to me. The last time he stopped a breath away from me – so that I felt his warm breath on my lips.
– Or so? – he whispered, looking first into my eyes, then at my lips.
– Salaman Dragon! – a commanding female voice suddenly called out to me.
Having jumped away from the brunette a good half meter, I looked at the dissatisfied one. She stood right on the porch of the freshman building and held the front door ajar.
– How long will it take to wait for you? You should have come for bed linen an hour ago!
“I’m coming,” I muttered, briefly looking at my guide. – I went. Thank you for telling me so much.
– Dragon! – they hurried me impatiently.
– In general, thank you.
As I climbed the steps to the porch, I allowed myself to turn around at the very door. Nirel continued to stand under the tree right next to the bench. His gaze was fixed on my face, which probably reflected regret and annoyance.
Not because I seem to have lost the kiss. That's exactly what I didn't want to think about right now. But because she didn’t find out anything about the “Recorder”.
When talking with Madame Pelisey, my mother asked her not to let me near this unknown thing, so that I would not suddenly find out who my father was.
But why? Why shouldn't I know this?
This was the second question she never answered.
Chapter 5. Spider webs
Someone unceremoniously touched my nose. It tickled the very tip, forcing him to twitch it to get rid of the irritant.
But it didn't work out.
That's why I opened my eyes. She opened it and saw above her, instead of a light ceiling, a bent green plant with small round eyes, a narrow slit that replaced its mouth, and limbs.
The leaves of this creature were wide, but about two-thirds of the length were occupied by elongated arches, similar to fringes or the experiment of a child who was given scissors for the first time. A kind of Frankenstein, created equally from howea and monstera.
If I saw him for the first time now, I would certainly scream in horror, waking up the entire freshman dormitory. But we met this green monster last night, when he tried with all his might to escape from his pot, scattering soil on the only work table in the room.
And on the bedside tables. They stood on either side of the table, next to the single beds. Immediately behind the table there was a large semicircular window with a wide sill, and opposite there was a wardrobe and a door.
The latter led to a common corridor. One of two on the second floor. The layout here was circular.
– Oh, sorry, sorry! I left him for two minutes, and he was already right there. He jumped onto the nightstand again,” the neighbor who returned to the room apologized, but her voice immediately changed, becoming menacing, commanding: “Come on, tidy up your appendages!”
Raising myself on my elbow, I was in no hurry to throw back the black blanket under which I slept. With an inexplicable smile, she watched the green-eyed whirlwind. The red curls jumped up and down funny while D-Rolly scolded her misbehaving pet. The neighbor did not have outstanding height, like me, but she still looked menacing.
In general, she did not at all resemble a pale-skinned vampire. When I saw her for the first time yesterday, I thought that I had been put in the same room with a witch. With a very strange, fussy witch who has a unique gift for controlling plants. She even knew how to revive her charges and endow them with a bit of intelligence.
The numerous books occupying all the free space on her half of the room definitely hinted at the fact that she was still a nerd, but I only saw this as a plus. D-Rolly really knew a lot and was a real treasure to me personally.
As soon as I checked in, she immediately showed me the dining room. While we were having dinner, she told us about local customs. It turned out that the academy occupied vast territories and was divided into four parts by high, enchanted fences. Moreover, not only the territory is divided, but also the main building of the academy.
Part of this gloomy colossus with a separate entrance belonged to werewolf students, another part belonged to witches and witchers – we shared a fence with them, and the last part was empty.
“They used to train hunters there,” she explained, wrapping spaghetti around her fork. – Now all three branches of the academy use this land for common needs and common holidays.
– I wonder why they suddenly decided to leave? – I was curious, trying to find out as many details as possible about the mysterious hunters.
– They say that they equated themselves with people. They stopped considering themselves Midnighters and rebelled against the entire midnight world. Until they left, they were busy catching offenders, and then we all suddenly became criminals for them.
– There must have been some reason for this?
I pushed D-Rolly in the right direction with all my might.
– Don't know. But personally, I wouldn't want to run into any of them. What they tell about them in class instills real fear. Have you finished eating? You need to get in line for the showers.
There were two bathrooms on each floor of the two-story building. In any of them you could find four sinks and a large full-length mirror above them, two showers behind separate doors and two offices for deep thoughts.
Considering that two students lived in each room, and there were eight rooms on the floor in total, this was enough to avoid standing in line for hours.
I was also immensely pleased that the second floor of the building was allocated exclusively for girls. The guys lived on the first floor, and, unlike us, they had noise until the very night yesterday. However, I also heard girls’ voices, which means we were allowed to move between floors.
Between floors, but not between rooms. Both the first and second floors had their own common living rooms, and they were the place for gatherings. The neighbor also showed me the room for washing and drying clothes, the storage room where they got clean towels if yours with the academy emblem became unusable, as well as the curator’s room.
There were five buildings in our part of the academy, depending on the number of years of study. There was a separate building dedicated to the work of healers. They were witches and witchers, and sometimes students were transferred here for practice. This is how D-Rolly met our neighbors in the territory.
– You won’t get lost alone, right? – the neighbor asked for the second time, as soon as we returned from the showers to our room. “I need to transfer Rory to the witches’ side before class.” They have sun there, and it grows better,” she explained, as if apologizing.
I took out from the common closet the uniform the curator gave me yesterday.
– Go, of course. Meet me in the dining room.
Grabbing her ward, for whom she was either writing a course paper or doing a lab, the redhead ran out of the room like a whirlwind. I just shook my head and smiled, looking after her.
In general, I was given three sets of casual clothes. The first is red and black: black turtleneck, black trousers and burgundy jacket. The second one is completely black – a sports one, consisting of pants and a T-shirt with long sleeves.
But I was going to wear the third one.
It consisted of a simple white shirt, a blue jacket, a short skirt and a matching tie. It seems to be strict, but not entirely official. Rather mischievous.
Having changed my clothes, putting on sneakers instead of the soft slippers given to me, I went out into the corridor. Having greeted the curator of our floor, I preferred to quickly hide from under her gaze, because Mademoiselle Ornina Welby fully lived up to her name.
Dark-haired, brown-eyed, a little on the body and about my height. She created a pleasant impression until she opened her mouth. The woman screamed at her charges from the bottom of her heart, without really understanding who was right and who was wrong.
But that was precisely her job. Maintaining discipline was why she was here in the first place. However, she could equally be called a business executive. Bed linen, towels, household products and uniforms – she was responsible for all of this, as well as for the safety of furniture and repairs in our rooms.
But the most important thing is that she was the one who decided who would receive permission to visit the city. One-time passes were given to students only for good grades. I found out about this when yesterday I asked to be allowed to go pick up my office for a while to study. I tried to cheat, but they simply gave me a whole box of everything I needed.
Then I decided to go the other way. She asked me to be released into the human world for an hour in order to give my mother important documents that she had forgotten in my backpack, which was a lie. But she was refused again. Because I didn’t yet have a dagger – an artifact enchanted by witches.
It was issued to all graduate students, and only with its help could one open a passage to the Light Side using the doorway on the second floor of the city library.
True, there was another way to get to the other side – together with a teacher for a practical lesson. That is, whatever one may say, in the current conditions I had only one option – to study. Of course, unless I come up with something else.
Having passed the stairs, I, along with other first-year students, climbed out onto a small porch. I felt unusual going out under the starry sky. The body said that it was early morning, but the eyes saw something else – a solid dark canvas and the absence of the moon. And also lanterns, trees and darkened paths among flowering bushes and neat flower beds.
The air smelled of something sweet, but unobtrusive. The slight coolness did not constrain the body. On the contrary, I felt the freshness that happens on an early summer morning, when the dust of the day is still nailed to the roads.
I felt great. For the first time I didn’t put on lenses, and without them it was as if I could even see more clearly, sharper. And I was breathing completely differently – more freely, as if a rope to which a heavy stone had been tied had finally been removed from my neck.
The only thing that darkened this morning was thoughts about my mother. I sincerely hoped that before meeting the hunter she would decide to gain strength first. The last time he was not present in our lives for six months, which means I had plenty of time to return to her.
You just need to figure out exactly how to do it.
The dining room was on the second floor of the main building. But to get there, you had to climb another staircase. It also grew roots and branches right into the wall, but today I walked on it without fear. But yesterday…
Expecting to see blood in tall glasses on the serving tables, raw meat and brains for dessert, I got up without too much enthusiasm. Nirel said that vampires no longer need to bite people, but he did not say that vampires do not drink blood at all now.
But they didn't drink. More precisely, they drank, but not blood. On the tray there were glasses of tea, coffee, compote and just water to choose from. Moreover, today for breakfast these drinks were supplemented with milk and, judging by the color, drinking yogurt. Porridge, scrambled eggs, omelet, cereal, fresh vegetables, simple salads. If desired, you could take cheesecakes, pancakes, a piece of butter and bread.
Judging by the menu, it is a very ordinary canteen. Except you don't have to pay. But here's the surroundings…
Massive dark wood tables and chairs, wood paneling up to the middle of the walls and burgundy velvet upholstery on the other half. The hall seemed large, simply huge, despite the horned gilded chandeliers. In a separate line on the left side of the entrance there were tables for teachers and other staff, and on the right there was a pile of furniture for students.
