Lychnus

Daring to Explore

He woke up to the sound of water splashing into a bucket. When he opened his eyes, he saw a group of girls. The one closest to him had a wet rag in her hands, and she set it on his forehead.
He couldn't see much of her face, but she had olive skin and hair that was twisted into a braid and fell onto her shoulder. Her voice was soothing, and her hands were soft.
"I am Aria," she said. "What's your name?"
"Thaddeus," he said. "Thaddeus Callaghan." He looked around, making sure that no boys were in sight.
"Don't worry about them," Aria said. "They just like to mess with the newcomers. Establish a sort of dominance, I guess."
He nodded, and another girl came to his side. This one had curly blonde hair which was tied up on the top of her head.
"I'm Mildred," she said. "I hope that you come to like it here, you'll fit right in."
"But I'm not..." he began, and Aria chuckled.
"We know you're human," she said. "None of us are going to hurt you, or let you get hurt."
"What are you?" Thaddeus asked.
"I'm a ghost," Aria said, and her entire body dissolved into thin air. She reappeared on the other side of the room, and the other girls moved away so that she could get through.
Thaddeus swallowed, and Mildred spoke up. "I'm a vampire," she said, opening her mouth and showing her fangs.
"So," Thaddeus shivered. "What exactly do we do here?"
"Well," Mildred said. "First they make sure our abilities are under control, then we compete to get the top scores, so that we can graduate, of course. Only one person graduates every year."
"That's odd," Thaddeus said. "Who graduated last year?"
"She was a quiet one," Aria said. "A ghost. No one ever saw her, and she passed all of her exams with perfect scores."
"How did she do that if no one could see her?" Thaddeus asked.
"Why, she killed all of her competitors, of course," Millie said, and Thaddeus stood stone still as Aria continued to wash his face.