“I was what you might call one of the ‘Masters of the Universe’; had the money to get myself everything and everyone I wanted, if I wanted them, but there were some things that were just starting to slip away. Not, my actual youth. Who gives a crap about that anymore? Not when you have Botox. And as people say about where you live, it’s not the dump you live in that matters, but the view you can afford. No, I was just thinking about death plain and simple. I hadn’t really put a lot a thought into the issue as I was always much more concerned with the sharp edge of the moment. But then one of my underlings went and died. The guy was seven years younger than me when he snuffed it, some skiing accident or other waste of time, and I just could not help myself looking in the mirror and asking myself; if it could happen to this guy, could it happen to me? For the first time in my career, I took my eye off the ball and I wasn’t performing. So, soon enough I was faced with the prospect of not only death but the idea that there might be others who could try to compete with me for my position.
“I won’t go into the gritty on how I found out about the vamp who got me here; all I’ll say is what I said before: I had enough money, and the will for that matter, to get anything I wanted. This all worked out fine, but crap, the little guy - after taking his hefty fee - did not tell me that it would take so long for the change to take place. After a couple of days, I was found dead in my apartment - by my cleaner of all people - and sent to be buried. Well, I tell you what, I found out from a bit of sniffing around not long after waking up that the family I had not seen in years had pounced upon my property and that I had nothing left: I was destitute in death.”
“Perhaps,” said Adam as soon as David gave him a long enough pause to do so, “this would be an opportune moment, David, for you to tell our new friend here about one of the rules of our community, and the reason the vampire that led you here probably did not inform you of the length of time the transition takes.”
“Well, I will,” replied David with a look of distaste. “But I have to say that I consider it a rule that makes no real sense. You see, Branden, they don’t like the idea that you can sell what you have to the living. According to their rules, you cannot knowingly turn anyone into a vamp - or whatever form of horror you happen to be - even if someone demands that you turn them into one and throws money at you to do so. And you know what the craziest thing is about that? We need to pay our precious, caring institutions - like this school - to supply us with blood, otherwise…”
“Maybe that’s enough for now, David. Let’s introduce the rest of the class.”
Despite the apparent lack of deference evidenced by David’s words for the authorities in the undead world, the man responded to the teacher’s words by obediently becoming silent and sitting down. Adam turned his attention to the other three members of the class and gestured for one of the zombies to stand and introduce herself. She did not move to respond right away, but when Adam indicated once more that she should stand up, she hesitantly got up. After getting to her feet, she felt she still needed to do more to compose herself and stalled a little longer by sliding her fingernail free fingers down from the top of the grey bare skin of her head to her peeling white neck.
“I’m Lilith,” she murmured. “Welcome, Brenden.”
With the effort of her introduction over, Lilith sunk slowly back down into her seat.
“Perhaps I better introduce our next student, Brenden. Sitting next to Lilith is Namenkhetamun, who unfortunately does not yet speak English.”
Brenden looked at Namenkhetamun and quickly realised that he was looking into the alert eyes of an ancient mummy; reminding him, as he did, of the ones he had seen on one of his occasional trips with his father to the British Museum. Despite all what he had seen since arriving at the school, it still struck the boy as a little odd that he had not noticed this before. However, in truth, this was not such a surprise as it was only the deep brown, tight skin on her hands and head that revealed her ancient origins, as she was otherwise wearing a worn Pink Floyd tee-shirt and jeans, obviously provided by the school. As it was clear to her that she was being referred to, even though she could not understand what was being said, she straightened herself and gently placed her hands on the table before her.
“Namenkhetamun came to our school about two weeks ago, though she actually woke from her long slumber some years ago. By some means that is beyond either her or my knowledge, she ended up in a museum in Birmingham along with a couple of others and came to the attention of the rather reclusive ancient Egyptian community here in Britain, who live just outside Bury St Edmunds. They told me that they found out that of the three who had travelled from Egypt and ended up in Birmingham, only she could be revived. Indeed, it is only those who have retained significant portions of their brain matter who can be revived, through
