***
“Now Brenden,” said Ms Halford, “Do take a seat. No, not that one, it might not look like it, but it’s already occupied.”
Brenden moved away from the seat indicated by Ms Halford and slowly pulled back a different, but equally worn, wooden chair – slowly, as he was unsure as to whether there could also be someone else occupying this new seat. He glanced up at Ms Halford and after she had given him a slight nod to show that it was fine to continue, he sat down.
“Now all, this is Brenden,” continued Ms Halford. “He is sitting in with us today as he has only just arrived and has not yet been given a class of his own. As we’ve other things to attend to, I think that will do for introductions for now. We may as well get on with the lesson.”
Brenden was exhausted after spending the previous night and the early morning awake thinking about his new life. Consequently, as soon as Ms Halford had finished talking about him, his mind started to drift away from the classroom and on to other things. After almost no time at all, his thoughts came to settle on the room which Dmitry, the deputy’s helpful ghost, had taken him to in the East wing of the school. Despite his tired and confused state, Brenden had still managed to notice that room was rather small. Indeed, the space it afforded provided just enough room for a person to walk beside the metal frame bed – which was covered with a thin, faded, red blanket - to reach a shallow, plywood cupboard on the wall opposite the door. For no real reason, as he sat in his classroom chair, Brenden conjured up the image of himself lying on the bed, before managing to do what he had failed to achieve in his real bed the night before, he fell asleep.
As he drifted further into his slumber, Brenden felt a tight grip closing around his upper arm, leading him to gently try and shake it off. But as he did, the grip just grew tighter until the grey eyes of his attacker flashed into his thoughts, causing him to lash out, throwing his chair and the poor zombie who had been trying to rouse him from his sleep to the floor.
“Brenden!” exclaimed Ms Halford. “What do you think you are doing?”
For a second, Brenden believed he was back in a classroom of his old school and that all his notions of being a vampire were just a silly fantasy that had crept into mind as he slept. But, as soon as he came to his senses again, he saw that it was Ms Halford who was standing before the light grey blackboard and that the person he had thrown back was no schoolboy. He mumbled out an apology and turned to help the zombie who had tried to wake him, but stopped when he saw the traumatised look in the man’s eyes. The man - though a zombie like Freddie and with a similar pallid skin – had been relatively untouched by his transition into an undead state, and so the terrified look on the man’s face made the situation even more incongruous for the boy. He had never seen an adult so scared, least of all scared of him: what on earth could he have done.
“I’m sorry,” mumbled the boy.
The man did not take his gaze off Brenden and even shuffled back a little further away. Before Brenden could do anything else to attempt to rectify the situation, Ms Halford appeared at his side.
“Toby, let’s get you off the floor. Johnathan, please give our man a helping hand.” She then turned around to face Brenden and motioned for him to leave the classroom. Brenden hung his head and was filled with so much dread of what he could have done that he just meekly followed her command.
“I’m sorry, Ms Halford,” said Brenden as soon as she came out to join him in the corridor. “I don’t know what I did. I fell asleep; then there was something holding on to my arm; then I saw the man who attacked me; I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I just wanted it to stop.”
“Calm down, young fellow. You do not need to be concerned about what you did, though I would rather that you did not make a habit of falling asleep in my classroom or that of any of the instructors here at the school. No,” said Ms Halford, lowering her voice, “I just wanted to inform you that there is someone waiting for you at the deputy’s office.”
“Someone is waiting for me?”
“Yes, a Miss Blake, I believe. One of our former attendees; finished about a year ago. She is going to have a look into the incident that led you here.”
“Oh, I see,” added Brenden, more than a little confused. “Thanks, Miss.”
Brenden started to walk away from Ms Halford and then turned back abruptly to find that she was still standing there, waiting for him to ask his question.
“Miss, why was he so afraid? If I didn’t really do anything, I mean. He looked really terrified.”
“Brenden, you need to understand something about the people that have ended up here. Like yourself, almost every single person at this school did not make a choice to join our community. Indeed, many have been through severely traumatic experiences prior to entering the school. Some, for instance, have even been forced to spend months - if not years -
