It felt like a century had passed since the last time she stepped into class. The room and the faces had become unfamiliar, but one thing stayed the same for sure — the empty seat by her side.
"The test results are here," the teacher announced from the front. "Raise your hand when you hear your name."
What test? Jane wondered. She looked around the room to search for a confused face, but they all calmly waited for their turn.
"Jane Lucien."
Jane raised her hand. The teacher walked down the aisle, a piece of paper gripped tightly in her hands. She didn't say a word, but her thin, pressed lips told Jane everything she needed to know.
Shining at the top of the page was a big, fat B circled in red ink. It would be a stain on her straight-A transcript, but Jane couldn't bring herself to care about the grade.
08/12… December eighth.
Another day she had no memory of. She stared intently at the numbers and letters scattering across the test, hoping it would awake some part of her memory.
The Van Allen Probes satellite was launched into space ... The distance from the center of the Earth to the satellite is modeled by the function R(T)=7000+3000T (km)...
Like a part of her brain was suddenly activated, vivid images flooded her mind. She was in the classroom, biting her lips, trying to solve the same math equation.
Next to her was Peter, sitting so far away that her eyes only caught his elbow and a blurry line of his jaw. His pencil cracked under his grip, and a girl turned around to offer him a new one. Through it all, they had no interaction.
Jane knew a cold war when she saw one. And this… stuck-up frustration belonged to a fight that had been festering for too long.
Then, her eyes drifted to the equally empty seat in front of her. Some students went absent all the time. It was just a coincidence. Jane told herself so, but her mind couldn't stop spinning.
Had they argued, and Peter found another girl? Or he found someone new, and she got mad—? No, she wouldn't do that, and neither would he.
Their mutual benefits were too entangled to be destroyed by a petty romantic element. Then what had happened during those lost weeks to cause such a distance between them?
DING DONG—
The sound of a savior. Jane shoved her things into her backpack and bolted for the door. She caught a few girls laughing and whispering as she passed, but her steps only turned wider. So everybody knew something, except her!
For the first time in Jane's life, she rushed back from school just to sit at her desk. There were so many things in her head that she didn't even know where to start.
Pulling a piece of paper out, Jane started writing.
Today was December 15th, or 16th. A new day had begun.
Her last clear memory with Peter was in the room when she had her blood drawn for the first time. That was sometime mid-November.
Her very next memory was Samuel cornering her with a cigarette at the club, which she had assumed was November 26th, but turned out to be December 15th. And somewhere in that time was a test out of nowhere on December 8th.
What was she supposed to do with all this information?!
Jane took a deep breath, forceing a rather stiff smile to steady her exploding frustration. Again. She thought to herself.
—10 minutes later—
"Fuck!" Jane grunted.
She had been sitting here with nothing in her mind and a ball of dissatisfaction boiling in her chest. A soft edge suddenly pressed hard against her palm, sending an uncomfortable ache that broke her thinking.
Jane blinked and looked down. She pulled the object out of her pocket. It was a rectangular box of cigarettes — the one she had bought the day before to spite Samuel.
A sudden spark of light flared in her brain. Her memory might lie, but her body wouldn't.
Tossing the ball of paper to the side, she pulled out a new one.
She officially started taking the drugs right after the first blood draw, driven by her desire to become immune to the venom… and her mother's phone call.
Fast forward to yesterday, she had another pill. First, why did she doze off in the forest so naturally? Second, how was she already immune, and how many pills had she drunk to get that way?!
The paper was filled with questions that all pointed to one answer: Jane hadn't forgotten just 2 weeks. She had forgotten everything since the last time she met Peter, and only woke up yesterday.
Still, Jane didn't know what had happened between them, nor did she have the time to figure it out right now.
She needed to do the next reckless thing.
***
The moment Ryan refused to teach her how to fight, a bold idea had been planted in her mind. What if she broke into that strange room and practiced against their "monsteric" defense system instead?
That plan had been put away until now, when the deadline was practically wrapping its hand around her throat. Thanks to her previous stalking experience, Jane knew the best time to break in was, unfortunately, during school hours.
Though Jane believed herself to be a rebellious student — like cheating in subjects she considered useless — skipping class was a whole 'nother level. It was a risk she had never taken before.
Watching from afar to ensure Ryan was sitting in his seat, her heart nearly stopped when the teacher walked into the room. Even now, as Jane sprinted toward the small cottage, she couldn't help but imagine the teacher calling a school authority, or worse, her mom.
Within 5 minutes, the cottage appeared.
Jane went straight to the center of the room, where the portal had once opened for her and would do so again.
A tiny crack formed in the air. Pastel, crystalized particles poured out, wrapping around her fingers like an invitation. Pressing down the uneasy feeling in her stomach, Jane pushed through the light. The rift stretched wider, swallowing her entire body.
In a flash, Jane found herself standing in the paper-white room. It felt less like a magical world and more like a torture chamber.
Immediately, a cloud of black dust swarmed down from the ceiling, condensing into a solid mass. Its eyes were the only color in the space, red and burning like an open flame.
Her body suddenly froze as the figure bolted forward. Its arm aimed straight for her face and its body moved at a speed she hadn't yet processed.
Just as her hair flicked against its nails, Jane's limbs finally came back to life.
She ducked to the side. The creature stood still, almost like it didn't know what to do. Using this moment, Jane ran behind its back and stabbed the pin deep into the back of its neck.
The creature's mouth ripped open, mimicking a violent scream, but no sound came out. However, there was the sizzling sound of its flesh where the metal went through.
It took her multiple attacks to disintegrate the creature completely, mostly because she couldn't find a proper weapon.
As Jane was catching her breath, another cloud of ash began to form at the far end of the room. This time, with no hesitation, she lunged straight toward it, catching up with its materialized body.
Black mass 2.0 moved its body toward her, fast but predictable now that she had got used to it. Running and changing multiple directions to scratch its body, she finally aimed for its weakness.
Jane stared at the floor, now covered in black dirt. These two were much easier to handle than the shape-shifting nightmare from last time.
She guessed that, much like an actual vampire, the defense system gained its strength through blood. So as long as she kept her blood to herself, she would be fine.
But that didn't mean she wanted to fight forever! Jane screamed internally as the black particles formed in the centre of the room yet again.
By the fifth round, her arm had swung about forty-five times and was begging to fall off her shoulder.
Leaning against the wall, Jane kept her eyes glued to the center of the room. Luckily, the air remained still.
She slid down to sit on the floor. Her fingers cramped from gripping the gold pin for so long, and her body just wanted to lie down. She might have if she hadn't made such a huge pile of black charcoal.
She pushed herself back up, intending to borrow a broom and a dustpan, but when she turned around to face the entrance, she was hit with another realization.
Last time, it was Ryan and his necklace that helped her out. She carefully traced her hand along the smooth surface, praying for a hidden button, when a soft mechanical hum echoed behind her.
The floor beneath the ash cracked open, swallowing the dust before returning to its pristine state.
Well, one thing off the list now.
She looked back at the wall and rewound her memory. The portal had opened when Ryan brought his necklace close to it.
Jane raised her arm up, holding it out the same way she had to enter the room. She waited for the magical particles to show up but nothing happened, just her arm stupidly waved in the air.
"Open the door!" she screamed frustratedly at the dead wall. The surface stayed completely unfazed.
There was only about an hour and a half before class ended. If she didn't get out now, Ryan would catch her for the dumbest reason ever.
Slumping onto the floor once again, she stared at the unbroken white wall. Her eyes squinted, trying to pierce a hole through the thick wall for fun, when suddenly, a tiny crack the size of a needle formed.
Jane scrambled to her feet in delight, but to her dismay, the magic instantly vanished.
What just happened? she wondered.
Then, it hit her — the crack appeared when she was telepathically opening it.
Jane closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, the same way Rose taught her at the horse stable to ...
Stay focused, Jane!
Her chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm. Behind the dark veil of her eyelids, Jane visualized a tear in the middle of the air, followed by a stream of particles.
Something brushed against her fingertips — small, slightly electrical, and ticklish.
It was working! Suppressing her rising excitement, Jane pictured the portal stretching even wider. The brightness bled through her eyelids changed from blinding white to… something not so white.
Jane opened her eyes. The rift was visible, revealing the familiar furniture on the other side.
Relieved, she cast one final look over her shoulder. The room was clean, still ugly but there was no sign of her being there. Satisfied, Jane stepped through the portal and fled the place.
***
On the other side of the school, a figure carrying a travelling bag appeared. Under the bright moonlight, her skin shifted from a perfect pale to a warm, healthy flush.
That was Charlotte Kelsey's power — to blend in perfectly with the humans. It wasn't a desirable ability among her kind, but she had never regretted it. It was the very reason she'd met her fiancé. The corner of her mouth lifted into a faint smile and vanished just as quickly.
Pulling herself out of her reminiscence, she pushed the wooden door open. Inside, her lab assistant was dozing off near a table sprawling with samples and chemical flasks.
Hunt day was coming, and they still hadn't found a way to suppress Jane's strength. They needed that sweet spot where Jane could protect herself while not harming the others.
"What is it that you couldn't tell me over the phone?" Charlotte asked.
Elly's eyes were still drowsy from her short sleep, but they flew wide open as she remembered why she was here.
"This!" she said, pointing to the chair she had reserved just for her boss.
Charlotte's head tilted; her eyebrow knitted together in confusion. She wasn't sure what could be special about a stained piece of furniture.
"Can't you see!" Elly said. She lifted the stool off the ground and pointed at a dark brown spot that had been scratched to near extinction. "This was Jane's blood when she sat here. She had a period!"
"Are you sure she didn't just have a wound?" Charlotte questioned.
"Oh, I'm sure. You need to see it."
A confident smile spread across Elly's moon face. Her grin stretched so wide it sharpened the angle of her chin as she guided Charlotte Kelsey toward the microscope.
Pulling her hair back and slipping on her gloves, Charlotte Kelsey looked down through the glass.
"Magnificent…"
The word slipped from her mouth uncontrollably as she beheld the structure in the tray — a cluster of hollow rings; the very structure of life.