Welcome to Winterclear

The school board is full of vampires, and quite frankly, they're racist

I recognized the guy that I saw feasting on my friend's blood as one of the people who had interviewed me for my job at Winterclear high. Over zoom. He was one of the six members of the school board.

Once I discovered that our school board is apparently populated by vampires, I took my butt home with a quickness. I lay in bed that night unable to sleep. I was hung up on something Hypathia had told me. She said that vambies were basically food for vampires, so that they didn't need to feed on... Real people. So, that was obviously a lie. Did Hypathia know it was a lie?

Who could I trust around here?

The following morning, I asked my secretary, Mrs. Fitzroy, how one might visit the school board in person.

"Hmmm?" she replied. She looked at me and I saw her eyes go all lizard-y for just a second.

I shivered, instantly thinking of The Black and hoping I wasn't in crumbling territory by asking the question.

"Why ever would you want to visit them, dear? Is there anything I could help you with?"

"I uh, um, I was just interested in saying hello. Saying thanks again for this position. I uh, may have made a mistake on my tax forms too, I'd like to have a look."

She nodded and gave me a slightly suspicious look. "Hmmm," she said again. "Well OK. The Board of Education office is over on Sullivan Street. It's actually just on the very outskirts of town." She produced a small writing tablet from her pocket and scrawled something on a sheet of paper which she then handed over to me. "There you go, the address."

After Mrs. Fitzroy scurried out of my office, I decided to tend to another task. Redditors on my last update had adamantly suggested that I really needed to be finding out more information from other Winterclearians about their time here... To try and figure out exactly what this place is. It's been more than a little alarming to me and to my Reddit friends that large parts of my prior memories seem to be... Leaving me... They insist that I need to be finding out as much as I can about other people here.

It's also been pointed out that when talk of Baz Greer comes up here, crumbling is involved. But yet, I can post on Reddit about him... Thank god for Reddit. It keeps a person grounded. But, anyway, this obviously shows that the reach of Winterclear's control over me is limited. Therefore, maybe I can find out more about the little monster via digital communication.

Therefore, I decided that as Principal, I could send out an interoffice memo! Under the guise of the new admin getting to know the staff, I could send out a sort of "questionnaire," and discreetly data mine Winterclear. I was still afraid to come right out and mention Baz, but maybe I could be sneaky about it.

So, I formulated a document with the following questions:

Please share some background info about yourself, such as your family history and what led you to come to live and work in Winterclear.

Where were you born and where have you lived?

What are your favorite spots around Winterclear and where do you do your shopping?

Who has been your support system here in Winterclear?

I carefully thought over my questions and crafted my survey, and then I sent it out. After that, I decided to put those worries behind me for the time being. I took to the halls of Winterclear high with confidence for the first time and managed to make it through the day without any students being murdered or fed upon by any sorts of entities.

After work, I drove over to the address that Mrs. Fitzroy had scrawled on the slip of paper. I was expecting some quaint little brick building like any of the other picturesque places in Winterclear, however I was surprised. The Board of Education was housed in a rather huge place. The biggest building by far that I'd seen in Winterclear. What's more, it lacked the cozy charm of every other place here. Instead it hulked on a hill, a big industrial sort of place with crude metal walls and bars on the windows. It had only a small sign indicating what it was, by the front door that said, "Central Office," in simple text.