Eclipse

Crescent College

            Crescent College has for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was four years old, I stayed in an orphanage home in San Francisco. It was where I grew up after my anonymous parents abandoned me at the front door post with my name written on a piece of paper and sashayed of to whoever the hell knows. After some time, the nuns in the home began to raise questions of my unusual intelligence, inhumane speed and sharp eyesight and soon enough, people started demanding that I should be turned over to the government for scientific analysis after the word got out that I was a mini superman. Luckily, a married couple showed up the next day, filled my adoption forms, overpaid the nuns to keep their mouth shut and boarded me on the next available flight to Nebraska, where they told me that they were vampires who were sent to retrieve me from the outside world and enroll me in a vampire institution. That was where I learnt that I was a vampire, so long story short, that’s where I’ve been since a toddler.

            Our school is barricaded with thick brown trees that stretch on for miles and miles away. Every single vampire is obliged to study in a vampire institution so as not to be termed “rogue”. Each person graduates at the age of twenty one and the compulsory age to be enrolled is at eight, and after graduation, you either work as a teacher or a hunter for our race. Also you get paid for both.

            For each year class, dorms and classes are provided for both male and female. There’s the school cafeteria that serves dried blood tablets (gotten from cows) and some veggies. The school battlefield is a block away from year fifteen’s classroom and the principal has his own private lounge.

            Basically, in the morning we do absolutely nothing, partly because our cells are inactive during daytime, so mornings are usually boring and dull. In the afternoon, we do some math, physics, and chemistry in our lecture halls, and in the evening, we focus mainly on enhancing our survival skills through vigorous training either on the school battlefield or deep in the woods before we go to sleep (not upside down by the way)

            So, on this perfectly good and normal morning, I was lying down on my bed licking my razor sharp fangs which might sound weird, but gives me some comfort whenever I’m hungry. The time was 9:45am and breakfast was by ten. With absolutely nothing to do and not planning to do anything other than relaxing and watching TV, I looked set to having my ideal morning once again until Ethan runs into my room hollering my name.

            Ethan Hacklesaw is my best friend and the only person in the world who actually gets me pretty good. He’s just like me; cool, strong and brave with charming looks. I’m only an inch taller than him and a bit more muscular. With smooth slick black hair and a sly grin always on his face, he was the perfect friend anyone could ask for. The only thing I dislike about him is his eagerness for work.

            Anyway, after rudely intruding my siesta, I swore that if this wasn’t important or if this was something about training, I was going to rip off his head.

            “Darmian,” he said still clutching the door knob.

            “What do you want?” I replied dully still licking my fangs.

            “Miss Ruby needs you right now in the auditorium,” he said impatiently.

            I moaned for a while judging whether I should go or not. Of course, she would be pissed off with me, but in the end, she would forgive me because all he teachers loved me.

            “How urgent,” I asked still torn between staying or going to the auditorium.

            “Very,” he replied obviously frustrated by my delaying.

            Sensing his frustration, I asked again nonchalantly. “Is this a joke?”

            “The hell it is!” he shot back. “Your ass is fried if you’re not in the auditorium in the next five minutes. Her words not mine”. And with that, he walked out just as abruptly as he came in.

            After muttering a silent curse, I put on some sweat pants, a T-shirt, some tennis shoes and walked out of my room.

            *************************************************

            The   building structure of the Crescent College General Assembly Hall is pretty big. It’s located south of the year 21’s classroom, and it’s also where the cafeteria, general weapons room, and auditorium are located. Most year 20’s and 21’s usually spend their mornings there either coaxing our caterers into giving them food or loitering around talking with teachers. The building is separated into the west wing and the east wing. The east wing has both the weapons room and cafeteria while most of the west wing is made up billions of rows leading to the auditorium which contains close to 15,000 people. Because of the fact that the building is so close to the principle’s lounge, most teachers hang out there, so it wasn’t really much of a surprise when Ethan told me Miss Ruby our school’s guidance counselor needed me.

            Like I’ve said earlier, most teachers love me for my impressive ability to surpass my peers in all courses. For example, if other people were dodging five razor sharp throwing knives at three seconds, I was dodging ten in one second. Or if everyone’s average in math was seventy two percent, mine was at least ninety four. Heck, I’ve beaten up more year 21’s than I can count. In other words, I was freakishly strong, had extreme supernatural abilities, and as a result, teachers loved me like crazy. As you would have probably guessed, I had a lot of enemies who were either envious of me or didn’t like me for reasons I don’t give a damn about. But despite the fact that cute girls in my school always wanted to follow me, guys from higher classes joked around with me and that my popularity was an all time high, I inevitably got a huge load of responsibility which sometimes sucked like hell.

            So, here I was walking through the shortest hallway to the auditorium fist bumping some of my friends along the way until I got to the entrance of the auditorium which was surprisingly empty except for one person sitting in a wooden chair a few steps away from where I was staring directly at me.

            Miss Ruby sat down crossing her slim slender legs over the other. For a twenty seven year old, she stunningly beautiful with long golden hair flowing from her head and her looks were more than seductive. Today, she wore a red dress that stopped at her knees, a golden wristwatch, and golden stilettos. Her red purse was on her laps as she slowly readjusted herself when I walked towards her.

            “Hey Miss Ruby, you look great. Don’t tell me you’re going to a party without me,” I said sitting on the chair directly opposite from her.

            “Thank you Darmian, but I’m afraid not,” she replied in her business like British accent. “Now I’ll go straight to the point why I called you here. I need you to take care of this for me”. She reached into her purse and handed to me a shiny blue orb about the size of a grown man’s palm.

            “Uh, what’s this?” I asked taking it from her. The instant I felt it, a weird, tingly sensation enshrouded me. It felt like touching electricity.

            “That’s not important,” she said as I caressed the orb tenderly. “What’s important is that you take proper care of it. Don’t let it out of your sight even for a second. I know it sounds strange, but you’re the person I trust the most to guard it”.

            “I guess I can do that,” I replied keeping the object in my pocket. “Is that all?”

            “Yes, at least for now. Go get some rest. You’ll need it for later”

            “Alright,” I mused and left her sitting there slightly ticked off that I had to walk all the way from my dorm to watch some weird glowing thing I’ve never seen in my life. I could have been sleeping my life out or chatting with the girls in my class, but here I was trudging back to my dorm feeling like an i***t for agreeing to come in the first place. As far as I’m concerned today was garbage.