“So, what are you then 12 or 13? I remember when I was that old, bit of a dog at that time and already trying to chat up the girls. I’m sure you were the same before, you know…”
At this point, David stuck his tongue out and jabbed his index and middle finger repeatedly against his own throat.
“Anyway, suppose it’s best not to go on about that too much, seeing as if you survive and go out to work in the living world, they’ll still be treating you as 13 in 30 years. Ha, don’t make a face like that kid, if you want to avoid that, you can always wear make-up or some prosthetics to look a little older. You can now even get your face changed as long as you can pay. Just be glad you weren’t a few years younger or, for that matter, about 70 years older. I mean, have you seen the deputy? Poor guy must have been in his sixties when it happened. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the headmaster, what a tragedy!”
David continued to laugh at what he perceived to be the poor situation of the deputy and the headmaster for a little longer than Brenden felt entirely comfortable with, though he was not even sure what the joke was supposed to be in the first place.
“So, you’ve been thinking about what you’re going to do once you get shot of this place?” said David once he had calmed himself down. Brenden just shrugged his shoulders.
“I know I’m not going into those tunnels, that’s for sure. In fact, I want to get out of this place as soon as I can and get back to the real world. My game’s over here in the UK of course; can’t turn up walking around as if nothing’s wrong after people have seen you buried. Still, I guess I could go somewhere like New York or Asia. I’d be able to get a few other things over there as well, if you know what I mean. Ha, maybe not, but perhaps you will one day. Anyway, all I have to sort out is how to get there in the first place and kit myself out with a social security number, ID and the like. Might be tough, but hell, I’ve got the time if I need to wait.”
“You may find that such a task requires a little more effort than you may know, David,” said Adam calmly as he gently set down a small pile of books before Brenden. “The living mostly desire to have nothing to do with the undead. I dare say that you will find that their systems of bureaucracy will cause you more problems than you care to imagine, and even if you manage to worm your way through these, you will still have to earn a wage sufficient to support what an individual such as yourself would require. Even those who accept the school’s help to slowly reintegrate them into the community and supply them with the documents that they require find that it takes time and effort to remain even on the edges of society. Of course, you could join the world of organised crime or worse. Indeed, you might as well if you spurn the chance of getting your documents from the school. I know of some who have made such a choice and who have had all that they wanted from their existence, for a time. You see, if you take such a path, neither this school nor any other institution like it will help you: you will make yourself a fugitive in our world and in theirs. Then, one day, you will either get yourself shot in the head, rendering you a mindless vampire, or you will be caught, after which you will run out of blood and go on a rampage that will most likely lead, in one way or another, to your death.”
David said nothing in reply and took to examining a corner of one of the books that Adam had dropped on Brenden’s desk. Now that it had arrived, the silence that Brenden had wished for earlier on seemed to be even more uncomfortable for the boy than the experience of having to suffer David’s unwelcome words.
“My apologies, David,” said Adam. “Perhaps I went a little too far, but my underlying point still stands. As I have said on many occasions before, the world out there is not made for the likes of us; the living do not want us; they find it hard enough to accept their own. All too often, naïve new students, just like yourself, leave and get lost out there, only to return here for help. I understand that you find it a challenge to see it now, but in time you will come to recognise what I say as true. Most of us must accept that it is necessary to remain here, with our own kind. This is not just because life in the shadows out there is brutal and unforgiving, it is also because of the constant burden one must live with when in the living world, that of not being able to live as true to what we are.”
“What you say might be right for some,” said David, using his words to help him regain his composure. “But I’m going to have to see for myself what lies out there first, even if I do have to return. You’re right that I’m new here and, to some extent, that’s to my advantage as it means that their world, as you might want to call it, is still my own. And with this insight, I can assure you that there are plenty of things that a couple of guys like us can do out there without getting into too much trouble at all. So despite what you say, I’m going back.
