"There are ten restaurants in the school cafeteria, but only one of them is for humans. Unless you like blood."

One of her fellow humans, Ava, leads Stella on a tour of the school. She seems friendly enough, a short but sporty-looking blonde girl. As they walk, the delayed echo of their footsteps bounces back to Stella's ears. The hallways are eerily empty because class is in session.

"But how much can you do with blood?" Stella asks to fill the silence.

"What do you mean?"

"How can there be nine different restaurants if it's all just blood?"

"Blood sausages. Blood pizza. Blood pasta. Blood cappuccino. Blood—"

"Okay, okay. Got it." Stella squirms in her skin a bit, still adjusting to the idea of living with vampires. To distract herself, she studies her surroundings.

The halls are cold, the walls and floor both comprised of grey stone, speckled with dark and reflective imperfections. The vaulted ceiling stretches ten meters above Stella's head. There are no windows, only flickering lamps along the walls, leaving the highest portion of the ceiling soaked in darkness. Sound resonates far down the halls, creating a sense that they could at any time be overheard by someone unseen. The place reminds Stella of a dark and rather unwelcoming castle.

Most of the walls are bare, but some hold huge Medieval and Renaissance-style paintings. Stella asks about them, and Ava explains that they're student art projects. When Stella inspects them more closely as they pass by, a shiver runs down her spine. They are filled with gruesome, bloody scenes, depicting devices of torture in use, the aftermath of beheadings, and demonic hybrid figures. The plaque beneath one painting reads Tribute to Hieronymus Bosch, a name she doesn't recognize.

Stella looks away, then stiffens when she spots a pale figure approaching, stepping so silently that they can be seen before they're heard. The figure stops, bearing his gleaming, sharply-pointed teeth as his lips turn upward.

"Who's your friend, Ava?" he asks in a smooth, lilted baritone.

"Stella Rivera. She's new here."

His dark, shadowed eyes flicker to Stella, boring deep into her. Instinctively, she feels a commanding impulse to back away, but she forces herself to hold her ground beside a reassuringly calm Ava. The boy is tall and thin; he reminds Stella of a stick bug. Hanging onto this thought helps her face him.

"If you're giving her the grand tour, she must be human." He grins tauntingly.

"Don't tell anyone, Lars," Ava demands, eyebrows drawn into a surprisingly harsh scowl.

"Fine, fine," he says, his eyes still on Stella, the eerie smile etched onto his face. "I won't ruin your little game." He stalks away, disappearing into the blackness at the end of the hall without a sound.

At last, Ava swings open an imposing wooden door, and overwhelming, brilliant sunlight cascades into the hall. Stella knows without asking that this must be the human quarters. To her surprise, there are already people lounging on couches and chairs in the main room, a large chamber with an ornate domed skylight. Bookshelves along the walls are tightly packed with all sizes and shapes of reading material, and the furniture, though old-fashioned, looks alluringly comfortable and well-crafted.

"Welcome to Anderholm's human sanctuary," a boy says, standing up and crossing the room to shake her hand. "I'm Nathan. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He smiles warmly, and she finds herself returning the expression. The others wave and call out absentminded greetings, absorbed in their books, laptops, and music.

Next, Ava leads Stella to the girls' quarters, where a long hallway is lined with identical, evenly spaced doors.

"We have more rooms than humans here, so everyone gets their own private, luxurious bedroom—no roommates. But, y'know, we're all close by. If you need someone, just holler. We're all pretty...close-knit here, by necessity." Ava unlocks the third door on the left and presses a key firmly into Stella's hand. "Maybe take some time to get settled, and we can talk more later. Oh, and you don't start classes until tomorrow, but here's your schedule, straight from the office."

Stella clutches the paper from Ava's extended hand. Then Ava turns on her heel to leave, but Stella speaks up. "Hey...before, Lars said something about a game."

"Hm?"

"That guy said he wouldn't 'ruin your little game.' I was just wondering what he meant."

"Oh," she says, a faint smile easing onto her face. "Sometimes we like to bet on how long it'll take them to figure out a new student is human. Usually, it's not long...longer for boys than girls."

"Why's that?"

Ava's smile grows amused. "Think about it. They can smell blood."

"Oh! Of course," Stella says, feeling heat rise to her face. She finds it hard to believe vampires won't notice such obviously human traits the moment they meet her.

A new voice chimes in. "They never mention this stuff in vampire movies. Like, you just know they all smell it." Leaning against a doorframe across the hall is a thin red-headed girl, her rosy cheeks and bare shoulders dotted with endless freckles. She gives Stella a small wave. "They call me Cherry. Cher for short."

"Hey. I'm Stella."

"So, where you from?" Cherry asks as Ava disappears into the common room.

"New Mexico, I guess. But I, um...I've lived at a sort of residential home in Colorado since my mom died."

The other girl wears a thoughtful smile. "I'd give you the usual 'I'm sorry for your loss,' and 'that must be so terrible,' but I'm sure you've heard it enough. To end up here as a human, everyone has pretty tragic stories. But it's really not that bad at Anderholm...once you get past the horror factor." This makes Stella smile, too, until Cherry says, "So, want to talk about it? What happened to your mother?"

Stella's voice goes monotone as she shoves away the emotion in the matter. "She had Huntington's. Died from it, eventually. It's a genetic condition."

Cherry raises her fiery eyebrows. "So does that mean you could have it, too? I saw, like, a documentary about it once on Netflix. It's kind of like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's combined, right?"

"Kind of. Yeah, I guess"

There's an uncomfortable pause. Cherry looks abashed, biting at her bottom lip. "Okay, I'm sorry for bringing that up...and that you have to deal with this. I'll let you unpack." She withdraws into her dorm, and the door quietly clicks shut.

Stella stands alone in her own doorway, a little empty feeling sprouting in her stomach. She turns around and closes her door, then flops onto her new bed and stares at the ceiling. Even as she closes her eyes, her mind won't stop swimming with a storm of relentless, shattering thoughts.

When she finally opens her eyes again, minutes later, she realizes she's not alone in her room.

__________

Glad to finally return to this story thanks to some inspiration from a dream, in which I found myself inside a school similar to this one. As usual, this is very much a rough draft. Maybe let me know if you like it, and I'll try to write more. <3