The dorm was drenched in moonlight.
Silence pressed in, heavy and uneasy, like the air before a storm. Elise sat curled on her bed, hugging a pillow to her chest. Patricia leaned against the window frame, the glass cold against her back, while Anastasia sat quietly on the rug, eyes distant.
None of them had really spoken since Nikki's death. The image of her falling, her blood splattering across the concrete, haunted them in fragments — flashes they couldn't erase.
Patricia broke the silence first.
"Davon's hiding something," she whispered, her reflection trembling in the window. "All of them are. The cousins too. The way they looked that day… it wasn't normal."
Elise swallowed hard. "He's not hiding something. He's just—" She paused, realizing she didn't believe her own words. "—maybe he's scared. Or protecting us."
Anastasia shivered. "Protecting us from what?"
No one answered. But all three felt it — the heavy sense that something around them wasn't entirely human.
---
By dawn, gray light spilled through the curtains. Patricia and Anastasia were summoned by Devin and Lucian — a simple message: Meet us. Behind the old art hall. Come alone.
The girls went. Curiosity outweighed fear.
The art hall loomed like a sleeping relic, its stained glass cracked, its corridors echoing with forgotten whispers. When they stepped behind the building, they found Devin leaning against a rusted pillar, arms crossed, his pale skin almost glowing in the half-light. Beside him stood Lucian, silent, unreadable, his gaze fixed on the horizon.
Devin spoke first, his tone unusually low.
"There's something you both need to know. And after tonight, things won't be the same."
Anastasia's heart quickened. "You're scaring me, Devin."
Lucian looked between them, then exhaled slowly. "We didn't come here to scare you. We came to stop lying."
Patricia frowned, confused. "Lying about what?"
A long silence. Then Devin lifted his gaze. His eyes — once a calm silver — deepened into a crimson hue, shimmering like liquid fire. The air shifted, colder now. Lucian followed, revealing his own glowing gaze, and as their teeth parted, faint fangs gleamed beneath their lips.
Patricia gasped, stumbling back. "W–what are you…?"
Devin's voice was smooth, steady, and almost sorrowful.
"We're vampires."
For a heartbeat, no one moved. The world seemed to freeze. The trees around them fell silent, even the wind dared not whisper.
Anastasia's throat went dry. "Vampires don't exist."
Lucian took a slow step forward, his expression soft but his aura commanding. "And yet you've been walking beside them for weeks."
To prove it, he pressed his hand to a nearby stone bench. The surface hissed faintly — frost spreading in spiderweb patterns under his touch. Devin let out a quiet breath, and a swirl of fog condensed in the air, shadows bending subtly toward him like drawn by an unseen pull.
Patricia could feel her pulse racing. Every instinct screamed run, yet her heart refused to obey.
Instead, she whispered, trembling, "You've been hiding this from us… all this time?"
Devin's crimson eyes dimmed slightly as he nodded. "Because we didn't want you to see the monsters we used to be."
The pain in his tone softened her fear. She took a hesitant step closer, searching his face. "Then why tell us now?"
Lucian answered, "Because you deserve the truth. You've seen too much — the danger, the blood, the strange things happening. We owe you honesty."
The girls exchanged a long look. Anastasia's eyes welled up with tears, but not of fear — of realization.
"So that night you found us… you didn't just appear, did you?"
Devin's voice lowered, almost tender. "No. I smelled the blood. I couldn't let anything happen to you."
For a moment, neither spoke. The world was still. Only their breathing and the heartbeat pounding in Anastasia's ears filled the silence.
Then Patricia smiled faintly through her nerves. "You know, when you put it like that… being saved by a vampire sounds kind of romantic."
Lucian blinked, startled by her words. "You're… not terrified?"
She shook her head, smirking. "I should be. But somehow, I'm not."
Devin's lips curved into a quiet, aching smile. "You're stronger than we thought."
Anastasia wiped her tears. "Or maybe we just trust you too much."
Lucian chuckled softly, tension melting from his shoulders. "Guess we didn't scare the right girls."
Patricia stepped closer, her voice warm despite the chill around them. "No, you didn't. You trusted us — and we trust you back."
For the first time since the nightmare began, the darkness felt almost safe.