It was already night, but there was still some time left for the group to talk, before their curfew would start. Therefore they all decided to head to the boys' room to discuss what on earth had happened during the fight with the Dalki.
At this point, the tears had stopped falling from Erin's anxious eyes, but none the less Layla continued to comfort and reassure her along the way. Quinn didn't know when it happened, but it seemed like the two of them were now closer than ever. It was strange seeing Layla being the one helping Erin.
When he first arrived at the academy this was a scene that he'd never imagined he would see. The entire walk through the hallway going towards the boy's room, everybody kept silent, it was eerie. None of them knew exactly how to explain what had happened. Peter was especially curious about what had happened after he jumped between Quinn and the Dalki.
"Hey, Quinn." Vorden whispered, as the two of them were walking in the front, leading the group. "Are you really going to tell her everything? Can't you just keep it about the shadow ability, and forget about the other thing?"
"Then how would I explain what happened to Peter? How about all the blood that Layla was collecting?" Quinn replied.
"You have a good point, but what if she freaks out and starts telling everyone?" Vorden asked.
Quinn looked back at Erin who was behind him. To be honest, it seemed to him that her priorities weren't geared towards learning about Quinn or Peter, but on why he had to hide his strength from her in the first place.
"Actually," Quinn said. "I'm more worried regarding how Peter will react about the whole thing."
Eventually, they arrived at the boys' dormitory and they were all able to enter the room in peace. The three boys promptly sat on Vorden's bed while the two girls sat on Quinn's.
"I suppose I should be the one who starts explaining first." Quinn said while standing up, he moved towards the centre of the two groups. "Recently, as you may all know, Vorden and I had entered the Red portal planet. While we were there, I discovered a strange ability book - one that allowed me to control shadows. It was a strange book, because it disappeared the moment I learned the ability."
Quinn then tapped the surface of his wristwatch three times, the number suddenly changed from a one to a six, when he tapped it another three times, it changed back to one again.
"I knew it," Erin said. "But, why did you have to hide it from us? If you wanted to keep it a secret from everyone, we could have just hidden and hunted away from others. Because of you, we probably would've lost our chance at becoming first."
At that point, Quinn took in a deep breath.
"That's because I have an even bigger secret that I was hiding…"
Layla and Vorden stared at Quinn, they struggled to keep their gazes on him. They knew this must have been hard to say for him. Vorden wasn't too sure if it was the right thing to, but he had already prepared himself for whatever would come of this. He knew that Quinn was too kind-hearted to deal with this himself. If Erin wasn't going to keep it a secret, then Vorden would be the one to do something about it.
"I'm a vampire," Quinn said, looking at Erin and Peter with a nervous look on his face.
Peter gave no reaction at all, but it wasn't because he had figured it out or anything, he just couldn't believe the words he was hearing. Still, it all started to make sense in a way, with the umbrella and Layla collecting the blood. However, he questioned himself if vampires were actually real, though Peter's train of thought was quickly interrupted by Erin.
"What's a vampire?" Erin asked, the innocent ignorance showing on her face.
The others then all turned their heads, now looking towards Erin.
It wasn't that rare for someone not to know what a vampire was in this modern day and age. A lot of entertainment products connected to vampires had lessened over the years. There weren't many films, books, or even games that had been made featuring them. However on TV, there were plenty of times when old films would be shown, and this was where most of the others got their knowledge of what a vampire was.
However, Erin had been raised without a life of entertainment. There were no fantasy books, games, or movies provided for her. All her time and education only had to do with fighting or learning about the current state of the world.
She wasn't the only one in this position since a lot of them shared her ignorance. Quinn was in a similar situation himself. He had heard the term vampires, but didn't really know much about them, so he had to rely on Layla to explain it to him.
With that confession, the others slowly started to explain what a vampire was to her - How they were weaker in the sunlight and most of all, they required Human blood to keep on living. All of this news was coming as quite a shock to Erin because it sounded so fake in her mind.
"So this is what you guys came up with to try to give an excuse why Quinn didn't use his powers." She said. "Well, I'm not buying it. I don't believe that a human that needs blood to survive exists. If there were such creatures as vampires, why haven't they revealed themselves to the world already?"
Erin then went towards the door, pulling it open before saying her final words.
"You guys disappoint me. I was starting to think that we were a team, not a bunch of liars."
With that, she closed the door behind her and stormed off.
"Do you think she'll tell anyone?" Quinn asked
"Are you kidding? With a reaction like that?" Vorden replied. "She didn't even believe it herself. She'll have an easier time convincing someone that she's a boy rather than you being a vampire. Well, how did we expect her to react? 'Oh it's okay, you can have my blood any time? She's not Layla, for goodness sake."
Layla was annoyed at Vorden's remarks, but at the same time, she couldn't deny that she had the same reaction when she found out.
"I'm going to go check up on her, just to make sure she really doesn't tell anyone. I'll give you an update about it tomorrow, Quinn."
Although Erin didn't seem to believe it, Peter for some reason did. He didn't know how to explain it, but ever since he had left, his body felt different. His hearing was better, and he didn't feel as weak as before. There was some sort of connection that he felt between Quinn and him.
It was as if the two of them were now connected, somehow. The last thing that convinced him was the fact that he wasn't dead. He remembered seeing the Dalki's fist go through his own stomach.
"Quinn, does it mean that I'm a vampire now too?" Peter asked.
As Peter asked that question, Quinn didn't know what to reply because Peter wasn't the same as him. While Quinn was originally a halfling, Peter was something known as a ghoul.
'Just what was a vampire ghoul?' Quinn thought.
"I'm afraid it isn't good news." The system said. "Out of all the possibilities he could have turned into, this was the outcome I was hoping for the least."
The system's words didn't give Quinn great hope, and what he was about to hear lessened his optimism even further.
*****
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