The Vampire Crimson Heir

Ethan Cross

I barely heard Adrian’s voice anymore, my attention remained fixed on Aurora, the princess of the witch kingdom. The woman who I had spent most of my life quietly fading into the background, because she was meant to be married to my best friend. A chill crawled down my spine, knowing she had also been reborn just like me.

“Kael!”

Adrian snapped his fingers in front of my face, I blinked. Aurora was gone, only the swaying branches of the trees remained.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost” Adrian said.

I forced a calm expression onto my face, “just tired”.

He stared at me suspiciously then shrugged, “whatever you say”

Together we headed towards the academy’s main building. Students filled the pathways connecting the dormitories to the enormous castle like structure that served as Blsckthorn academy.

Five years ago I had walked these same paths without a care in the world, now I couldn’t stop seeing potential enemies, traitors and murderers. My gaze swept across the crowd, who else remembered? Was Aurora the only one, or were there others pretending not to remember.

“Today’s combat assessment should be fun” Adrain said.

I remembered instantly, the first ranking assessment of the semester. In my previous life of course I had placed first, the victory had earned me recognition from professors and nobles, this time I wasn’t interested. The less attention I attracted the better.

As we entered the academy a familiar figure appeared at the end of the corridor, I froze. Lyra Evermoon the woman I thought I was spending the rest of my life with, but also the woman who drove a silver blade into my heart.

Lyra stood motionless, her icy blue eyes widened the instant she saw me, a book slipped from her hands then a loud thud echoed through the hallways. Students turned, no one understood why the usually composed Lyra Evermoon looked like she had forgotten how to breathe.

I did, I recognized the fear and the shock on her face it was the exact expression Aurora had on her face. My stomach tightened, she remembered too. Without another word she turned and disappeared into the crowd. Adrian looked between us.

“What was that about?”

“I don’t know”

That was a lie, and I hated what the truth implied. Two people I knew were already reborn maybe even more I didn’t know about. The future was becoming more complicated by the minute.

The combat assessment ended passed uneventfully. I deliberately held back my abilities. Instead of crushing all my opponents I settled for a respectable performance. Strong enough to avoid suspicion, weak enough to avoid attention.

Still whispers followed me, I could never truly disappear. By evening, exhaustion weighed heavily on me, the realization that the timeline might already already be changing dawned on me, I needed answers. I really needed to speak to Aurora.

After dinner I slipped away from the academy cafeteria and walked to the library gardens. In my previous life Aurora often spent her evenings there, sure enough I found her sitting there with a book in her laps. She wasn’t reading, she was staring into the distance. I sat and spoke,

“You remember”

Aurora’s fingers tightened around her book, for a moment she looked like she was going to deny it. Then she nodded slowly, different emotions flashed across her face at once.

“I do”

I released a breath, Atleast I wasn’t imagining things. “How?”

“I don’t know”, Aurora shook her head.

“When did you wake up”

“This morning”

The same day I did, I frowned. “What do you remember?”

Her expression darkened, “everything”

Her words carried a weight I understood all to well. The memories, betrayals, deaths, and pains. For a brief moment neither of us spoke, then she looked at me, really looked at me, tears filled her lavender eyes.

“You died”

The words hit harder than I had expected

“You died and I couldn’t save you”

My chest tightened, and I had no idea why. She quickly looked away, embarrassed as if she had revealed too much. Before I could respond a screen shattered the silence, we both jumped to our feets. The scream came from the forest sorrounding the academy, more screams echoed, students were terrified.

We exchanged a look and without a word we ran, other students were already running towards the source of the screams. By the time we arrived a crowd had gathered in the forest around the trees, and something was very wrong. Students looked terrified, some sick, some visibly irritated.

I pushed through the crowds, my stomach dropped. A second year male students body lay on the ground, horribly dead. His eyes were wide open, his skin was ghostly pale. Every drop of blood blood appeared to have been drained from his body, and a strange black symbol I had never seen was engraved on his body. Then the whispers started,

“What happened to him?”

“Was it a vampire?”

“Who could do this?”

I could barely listen to all the whispers because I knew him, I remembered him. He wasn’t meant to die here or now, he still had three years. My blood turned cold, the timeline was changing and it was fast. Under his body I noticed a torn piece of black fabric the material looked familiar.

Blackthorn Academy's faculty.