Bianca’s eyes slowly peel open.

She groans when the blinding, light rays reflect on her face. Getting informed that it’s already morning, she forces her heavy eyelids open. She blinks a few times as she tries to get used to the feeling of being awake; however, her eyebrows furrow when she sees a figure hovering above her.

A few seconds later, her eyes zoom in on the figure and she realizes it’s her friend, Adriel.

With a piercing scream leaving her lips, she smacks his face away from her as she jumps out of her bed, holding her hands over her chest.

Adriel yelps loudly in pain with his hand rubbing over his left cheek. His face is scrunched up as he bends over, making his red hair to fall over his forehead.

“I told you not to wake her up with your face.” Another voice said.

Bianca quickly snaps her wide eyes to her dresser to see her other friend leaning against it. “What are you two doing here in my room?”

“Bianca!” Adriel turns a red cheek to her. “Why did you slap me?”

She yells back at the red-haired boy with anger blazing in her eyes. “Don’t you know better than to lean over a lady when she’s sleeping?”

Adriel scoffs, straightening to his full height. “Don’t flatter yourself. I don’t consider you a lady.”

She glares. “Then what am I?”

The young male standing with his arms folded, clears his throat. “Your grandmother let us in a minute ago.”

Bianca eyes the two boys in front of her— Adriel and Lake.

Her judging eyes linger on the brown-haired boy leaned casually on her dresser, watching how his blue eyes stay indifferently on her even though she’s slightly underdressed. Lake always has a straight face on; no one is able to guess what kind of thoughts go his mind most times.

“Lily!” She raises her head to the ceiling, making sure her voice echoes through the house. “This isn’t how things are to be done!”

A female’s voice echoes behind her. “She let them in because I was here.”

Bianca tramps on the blanket as she turns around to see Rhea walking out of her wardrobe. She watches carefully as her best friend inspects the black top she has picked out. Confused, Bianca’s facial expression matches that of the short, light-skinned girl standing in front of her wardrobe.

“You all are here. Why?” She questions, her hands dropping from her chest. “We always meet at the academy.”

“And remind me to keep it that way because I am never ever coming to your house in the mornings again.” Adriel speaks bitterly, still petting his cheek.

Rhea drops the black top onto Bianca’s bed as she saunters toward her friend. “For someone who has such a huge day ahead of her, you sure look unmotivated.”

“Of course, I’m unmotivated. The first thing I saw when I woke up was Adriel’s face.”

She intentionally makes that statement to irk her friend and it works since his ears turn red in anger.

Her dark eyes take in the appearances of her three friends. They all barely fit inside her small bedroom. Lake is stood against the dresser which is just an inch away from the door. Adriel is still groaning distastefully with his back glued to the wall, scared of going closer to Bianca since her bed is right in front of him. While Rhea and Bianca are stood by the bed with the small wardrobe behind them.

It clearly looks uncomfortable; however, they will never say it out loud. There were bigger problems, like worrying if you would see the light of the next morning.

In order to put her friends out of the misery of the tight room, she offers. “Since you’re already here, just give me a few minutes and we’d be headed for the academy.”

She walks away, headed to the washroom when Rhea pulls her back.

“We’re not here because of the academy.”

Bianca runs her hand through her messy, black hair. “I’m sure today is a Tuesday and we spend the whole day training at the academy.”

“No.” Rhea shakes her head, peering up at her tall friend. “We are going to the academy but you are not…”

Bianca only frowns when she trails. “I’m not? What?”

“You don’t know?” Lake asks, his arms still folded.

Bianca observes the confused frowns on her friends’ faces, letting silence descend upon them for a minute. The new-found, peaceful silence soon gets ruined by her grandmother’s sudden entry.

Bags after bags are being thrown onto the floor of Bianca’s bedroom. The loud sound of luggage hitting the cold, concrete floor causes the four young adults to jump in shock. With wide eyes, Bianca watches her grandmother drop the last bag to the ground.

“I have packed everything you’re going to need.” The plump woman wipes the sweat off her face, standing akimbo. “Wash up quickly and come out. You don’t want to keep them waiting.”

Bianca blinks before asking. “Keep who waiting?”

Without giving her an answer, her grandmother walks out of the room, closing the curtains up.

“You really don’t know what is about to happen.” Lake squints his eyes at her.

Adriel’s chuckle stirs the apprehension in the air. “Come on. There’s no way you thought you were going to have a regular day after what happened last night.”

Bianca’s eyes itch as she feels them water. “Last night?”

“Everyone heard about it.” Rhea walks up behind her friend, excitedly. “Even the Queen.”

In a split second, Bianca connects all of the dots and fear grips her once again. She had forgotten what happened at the brick wall with the Vampire and had fallen asleep. Now that she’s awake, everything comes crashing down on her in huge waves.

She had experienced the worst moment of her life a few hours ago— she watched someone die at the hands of a Vampire; a Vampire everyone thought was human. At the moment, the only thing she can recollect from last night is the guards walking her back home to her grandmother—she had been unable to utter words, so she just walked straight into her room and hit the bed. Even as she slept, she had reoccurring dreams of blood and people dying; that was the main reason she jolted when she saw her friend’s face so up close.

Grasping onto the feeling of fear from last night, she feels her blood pressure rise.

With shaky hands, she pushes the curtains open and marches into the next room. She halts in her steps when her eyes land on the two men standing in her house. Anxiety washes over her when she observes their uniforms— blue, wool fabrics as shirts and baggy, black trousers. They are the royal guards from the Palace and she may have a pretty good guess on why they’re here.

“Bianca, you haven’t gotten dressed yet?” Her grandmother scolded in a croaky voice, turning away from the guards to shoot her granddaughter a glare.

“Bianca.” One of the royal guards’ hollers. “We’re sorry to barge in like this, but the Queen has requested for you.”

“What? Why?”

“Don’t be disrespectful, Bianca. Go get dressed.” Her grandmother quickly shunned.

“No, but I can’t—”

“It would be so much helpful if you did as your grandmother said.” Says the other guard dressed in identical attire as the first. “If we want to get you to the Palace before nightfall, we would have to leave now.”

This is escalating too fast and it isn’t what Bianca had in mind when she told that stupid, worthless lie.

She had been so scared last night and the whole pressure she felt throughout the whole day with losing the fight, it all led to her lying she killed the Vampire. She had no idea how much more weight that lie would pull on her. She had been made fun of and ridiculed about being a loser. She had been unable to increase her rank at the academy for a very long time now, so she wanted to take a little credit for the death of the monster.

She just wanted to get praises and respect from peers, even if it meant lying. Apparently, it seems she doesn’t just get attention from her peers but the Queen too.

Bianca’s soft, facial features contorts into confusion and fear. “My apologies, Queen’s guards but I…”

When Bianca starts to blab, her grandmother walks over to her and rubs her hand down her arm. “Bianca, listen. What you did last night was revolutionary and a miracle you’re still alive.” She begins. “And as much as I want to keep you here with me, I think your knowledge would be of great use to the whole other-world. Apparently, you can kill Vampires, now.” Her grandmother chuckles nervously with tears pricking in her brown eyes. “The Queen knows how important you are and she wants to know how you did it. So, please go with them. Do this for the freedom of the other-world from those monsters and for your parents.”

After listening to her grandmother’s words, Bianca sheepishly looks back at the tall men standing in the empty room.

It makes sense to her. She understands why the Queen sent guards to extract her from her home but what scares her is that the Queen’s being misled. Bianca is sure the Queen sent for the 20-year-old who finally succeeded at doing the one thing no one has ever been able to do in hundreds of years; however, that 20-year-old happens to be a fraud.

Exactly 220 years ago, the world almost ended.

It wasn’t caused by famine, overpopulation, neither was it caused by a nuclear explosion. It was caused by a war. A war between the humans and the supernatural.

Desperate to win the war, the humans decided to contain the source of the problem.

According to the stories Bianca has heard, the land which she lives on was the origin of all things supernatural and then, it all got out of hand. The beings started to spread; killing and feeding off everything they came in contact with. They caused chaos, commotion and a lot of blood was shed.

The humans had no choice but to seal off the land to lock the supernatural away from the rest of the world.

They made that decision knowing fully well that there were human survivors who had managed to hide from the bloody war. And Bianca’s great grandfather was among the survivors. To the other humans, it was either save hundreds of people and risk the lives of billions or save billions of people and lock away hundreds with the supernatural beings. They took the latter.

Trapped behind a huge, brick wall with no form of escape, the human survivors stood up and fought against the supernatural beings. They managed to eliminate a few and many beings ran into hiding; however, the Vampires couldn’t be killed or driven into hiding.

So, it makes sense to Bianca that the Queen wants the one girl who managed to kill one.

Her grandmother turns away from her to face the royal guards. “She will go with you.”

Bianca stands there in her white shorts and long-sleeved shirt, feeling hopeless and exposed. Her dark eyes watch the guards as they bow to her grandmother before walking past her to gather her bags from the room.

“We would get all of these to the carriage and get the horses ready.”

The plump woman’s grey hair bounces as she nods at the men and Bianca feels her heart drop.

In the other-world, there are a lot of rules and the penalty for breaking them may be death. Walking out past curfew is one of them but Bianca thinks she was spared because of her heroic act last night. Lying is not a problem, but when it’s done to the Queen…

“I know this is a big change for you, darling and you must be scared but once you get to the Queen’s palace, everything would be okay.” Her grandmother says.

Bianca shakes her head. “No, that’s—”

“I’ll be fine, Bianca, if that’s what you’re worried about.” The woman flashes her granddaughter a hopeful smile. “The Queen has promised to bring me someone who could take care of me while you’re gone. Now, go wash up.”

With that, she walks out the house, heading for the carriage.

Feeling light-headed, Bianca wobbles on her feet, trying to locate the washroom. Her friends run up to her and Rhea immediately pulls her into a hug.

“I am so happy for you!” She squeals, jumping up and down but Bianca doesn’t join in the burst of excitement. “I can’t believe you’re going to meet the Queen.”

Adriel seems to have grown out of his gloomy state since he smiles widely at her. “I’m sure there are a lot of banners at the academy, cheering for you as the Vampire slayer!”

He means that last part as a joke but it only makes Bianca feel worse.

She quickly nods, pushing them out of her way as she heads for the washroom. When she turns into a corner, she finds Lake standing in front of the room by the curtains.

She suddenly feels cautious and embarrassed to face them. “If you want to use it, it’ll have to be after I’m done.”

He ignores her statement. “You’re deep in it now.” His blue eyes sparkles with intention. “That means you can’t afford to say the truth. You know the Queen hates betrayal and lies.”

The space between her eyebrows furrow. “What are you talking about?”

Lake only flashes her a calm smile. “You know what I mean.” He turns away, but doesn’t leave. “Just put your head down for the meantime, you wouldn’t want the royal palace finding out you’re a fraud.”