“The age of the school is really a consequence of its function,” continued the man. “The whole idea of this institution is to give instruction to those who have entered our world, and by our world – as I’m sure you’ve gathered by now – I mean that of the undead and the undying. There are a bunch of individuals around here that won’t like hearing such terms - political nonsense of course and you won’t get an old man like me changing my ways - but I digress. However, you get the gist of what this place is about, I hope. We’ve had a few problems with that before, you see, especially for those poor sods who’ve been affected by a bit of rot before we can get to them – and so my first question is, of course, do you actually want to stay here?”
Brenden had almost stopped listening to the deputy, but he just about managed to remember the man’s question after a moment’s pause. He shrugged his shoulders a little and scanned over some of the papers that lay on the floor.
“I suppose. Where else can I go?”
The deputy let a moment pass before moving on as he could see Brenden was struggling to accept his situation.
“Well, I’m very glad that you’ve decided to stay,” said the deputy after letting the silence linger a little. “Not everyone does and that’s not always for the best; either for them or for us. You see, one of the main things we teach people here is how we can support each other. If you go off alone, that’s just not possible. We’re not a big community really, despite what all of those films would have you believe. But those of us who are willing to work together have strived to create a community that protects our own and enables each and every one of us to continue on as we choose, whether that be alongside the living or not.
“One of the first things that we’ll provide you with is instruction on how to take care of yourself now you’ve gone through the change. On the one hand, we’ll get all of those stories out of your head about who you are - crucifixes and so forth. On the other, we’ll also give you a fair amount of practical information, such as what to eat and what not to eat as well as how you should go about getting what it is you need to eat. We have a lot of people here who have stories that are just like yours, they understand and have survived to pass on what they know so they can help you. Our hope is this will help you avoid all of the mistakes they made. But if you do make some mistakes – and we all make mistakes - then just jot what happens down as one day you might even find yourself back here passing such information on to others.
“I’m sure you’d also like to hear that we’ll set something up for you in the way of clothes and other essentials very soon. The school will also provide you with somewhere to stay during your time here, and we’ll even help you follow the path you choose to take once your time with us is over. With all that said, though, I’m sure a young chap like yourself will soon settle in. Also - though I do not mean to be presumptuous – many people decide to give back to the school once they’ve set themselves up in their new lives: but of course that’s a conversation for another time.
“Now that we’ve got that out the way, I’d like to get to my second point. Ever since our school was established by our eponymous headmaster, this institution has strived to maintain a code of conduct for all of those who are similarly afflicted – or gifted if you would like to think of it that way. While the teachers here will go into detail about the code, there is one fundamental principle that we have tried our best to uphold – a principle that has been ever more possible to maintain since the burgeoning of what you might call modern medicine. This fundamental principle is not to kill any of the living, either to satisfy your own needs, by accident or for any other reason. Some - with the same, or a similar condition to the one we are both subject to - have tried to claim that they have passed on something that will enable a person to live on following an attack, meaning they have not really killed their victim at all. I need to stress that this argument is deemed as totally unacceptable here.
“You see, despite what some believe, it would be a terrible thing if the living start to believe in us again. And I don’t mean as it will lead to packs of hunters trying to cut us all down: no, no. Of course, there will always be some who will try to seek us out and destroy us: there’s enough people in this world to supply infatuated fools for almost any cause. No, there are other problems. For instance, the impact on society would be enormous. Many would desire to become one of us, no matter the cost and others - for religious and other reasons - would believe it to be a sign of the end of days. Yes, and in a way, these latter sort could turn out to be right: if everyone were to join our community, it would mean the end of humankind. That is, unless we were
