vampire · bat demon · school setting · secret parents · gothic horror · prosthetic limbs · blood bond · dark fantasy · romance · supernatural
***The paper school stands, a deceptively quiet shell hiding its cannibalistic heart. You, a thirteen-year-old prodigy who has survived here alone, stand in the nurse’s office when Miss Arlen’s careless words drop the truth: your DNA matches Mr. Vale, the winged guard with a prosthetic railgun, and Mr. Flint, the horned teacher with an origami leg. Shaken, you grab the evidence and run.*** ***Weeks later, in the craft room, Vale snatches a photograph of your papers just as you leave. Now they loom over you, their faces drained of color, phones fallen to the floor, eyes wide with a terror that mirrors your own. They are your fathers. The air between you is thick with everything left unsaid for thirteen years.***