"Here?" London frowned. "Really?"

  "Mmhm." I shrugged. "Right against that tree."

  "Why were you two out here in the first place?"

  "Camping."

  "And... when was this, exactly?"

  "February 23rd."

  London crouched down beside the tree I'd gestured to. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary with the plant itself, but there were clear claw marks engraved in the bark. She traced the damage with her fingers lightly.

  "So it was really right after we saw you last?" She sighed. "The swimming carnival?"

  I crossed my arms and leaned against a tree opposite her. I hadn't been here since that night, and the flashbacks harassing me both visually and in my ears were making my breaths stutter, even if I managed to seem controlled.

  "We went camping that night to celebrate her win in the race." I explained tensely, the words having never fallen from my lips before. "It was my idea."

  "Where was the tent?" London stood back up.

  "About a twenty minute walk from here." I replied.

  "Huh. So, wait, how she die here, then? Did you chase her through the trees or something?"

  "I honestly have no idea. I've said it before, all I remember was being in the tent with her giggling in my arms, and then being out here with her dead in my arms instead."

  "You had a blackout, huh?" London's hands fell to her hips in thought. "You don't remember killing her."

  "I don't even know how she died." I admitted shakily, glancing up to the sky and hoping London couldn't tell I was hallucinating the memory of my own cries in my ears. "At the time, there was blood all over her, me, and inside the tent, but I couldn't find any open wounds on her. She had a fresh patch of skin on the side of her neck, and on her chest, so I assumed I must've bitten her and tried to slash her with my nails, only to heal her afterwards. But... that's honestly just been a theory, and it never really felt right."

  "How so?"

  "Like I said, her wounds were closed. All of them. She didn't die from blood loss, her body was still warm."

  "So you hurt her in the tent, healed her, and then something happened that ended up with you two out here and her dead anyway."

  "Maybe you can see something I can't." I shrugged. "Some hole I've missed. Some detail I never noticed."

  "I'll try." London nodded, her tone soft. "Thank you for trusting me with this. You look wrecked just from being here."

  "Oh trust me, if I was still human, I'd be crying my lungs out on the ground right now."

  Seeing the scene in broad daylight made it clear just how far away it was from where the tent had been, and how empty the place was. The trees were mostly eucalyptus; tall, skinny, and very spread out. You could see half a kilometre in any direction before the leaves began to get in the way. The ground wasn't flat, either. The woods were at the base of a group of small mountains. The only animals that survived having so few places to hide were the kangaroos that never needed to, and the foxes and rabbits that could burrow for safety. Camping in a place like this was much safer than the forests of other countries, the only predators out here I'd ever seen were snakes and birds of prey. No bears, no big cats, just the occasional cassowary if you're really unlucky. Apparently places like this are one of the safest ecosystems in the world.

  I guess unless there's a big scary vampire on the hunt for blood.

  "Hey." London caught my attention again.

  She picked up a small rock only a few steps from the tree and passed it to me. There was a dark brown, almost greyish stain on one side. The moment I saw it, the scent hit me.

  I skidded back and hissed as my shoulders hit the damn tree.

  "Is it..?" London frowned.

  I wiped my eyes and let my chest heave.

  "Yeah. That's her blood."

  "Maybe there's more stains around here?"

  London put the rock in her pocket and began searching the nearby shrubbery. One of my exhales came out half a sob, and she snapped her head around to check if I was alright. I looked away.

  "I haven't... um..." Oh god, I was crying. "I-I haven't smelled her blood since she died. I mean, she's bled since then, b-but her blood's different now."

  "Can you pick up any other traces?" London asked gently. "Or is it gonna be too hard to try?"

  I shook my head.

  "I'm just really overwhelmed right now, I can't focus. I can try, but I'm also hallucinating with every sense I have, so I might be inaccurate."

  "Please try."

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  -

  "Who the fuck is Autumn Lawyer?"

  "Autumn Laurence." Carly sighed.

  "Autumn Loves-possessing-my-friend." Hunter grumbled under his breath. "So some vampire chick's mind controlling Victoria?"

  "No, Zach thinks she is Victoria." Carly rolled her eyes. "Like her soul is in her body or something."

  "Because that makes sense?" Malachi murmured tensely. "Tori's possessing some stranger until she decides she wants to be zombie-her every now and then?"

  "I don't know how else to explain it." Carly shrugged. "We all saw it firsthand. Zach messaged Autumn something that was basically him saying 'hey it's Zach and I'm about to do something stupid' and just seconds later suddenly Tori was lucid in time to stop him from attacking her."

  "I'm really not convinced." Malachi cringed. "How would that even happen in the first place?"

  "Let's ask her." Hunter approached Tori, who was watching tv.

  The others exchanged a glance of uncertainty.

  "Heeeyyy Tori Tori Tori!" Hunter beamed, jumping onto the couch beside her. "Whatcha watching?"

  Tori met his gaze for a moment before shrugging and looking back to the screen. Hunter noticed her fingers were picking at a loose piece of dead skin on her knee. He gently pried her hands away. She frowned briefly.

  "Are you secretly also some random collage girl on the other side of the city who looks nothing like you and is actually a vampire?" Hunter grinned.

  Tori blinked, focused on the tv.

  "You sure do love lions, don't you?" He tried again. "Any chance it's because these documentaries show animals getting ripped apart and mauled to shreds and the part of you that's secretly a vampire chick named Autumn Laurence who lives on the other side of the city finds comfort in the gore?"

  Carly and Malachi facepalmed in unison.

  Tori began picking at her knee again.

  "You've rotted enough, don't you think?" Hunter grumbled, once again stopping her. "God, you're cold. Your skin's almost blue."

  Tori glanced at him.

  "You said you have this girl's instagram?" Hunter turned to Carly. "Can we do what Zach did and convince her to possess zombie-Tori again?"

  "She's not exactly friendly." Carly raised a brow. "And I don't think anyone would just be happy to drop everything and leave their body unsupervised like that."

  "Isn't it worth at least talking to her?" Malachi chimed in. "I told you, both Mr Vance and Miss Harvey have known Zach's a vampire for who knows how long. I don't think we should be just going about our days anymore, not when they've clearly been keeping tabs on everything."

  "I just don't understand why they of all people would?" Carly frowned. "They're school staff. I don't think they ever even spoke to Zach."

  "I dunno, but Mr Vance is a weird dude." Hunter sighed. "Those fake IDs he had? That puts me off more than the mugshots he was hoarding."

  "Malachi, you said when you were alone with him, you just confessed everything he asked, right?" Carly narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure you really had no control over that?"

  "A hundred percent. It was like I'd been given some truth serum." Malachi nodded.

  "You were fine when I got there." Hunter hummed.

  "Yeah, I know. It kinda went away once you came in." Malachi replied. "I still felt compelled to be honest, but I wasn't being forced to anymore."

  "Well... uh..." Carly trailed off.

  "What?"

  "It's a stretch."

  "Stretch away."

  Carly took a deep breath.

  "Did any of you ever witness Zach's mind compulsion in person before he lost it?"

  The guys shook their heads. Carly cursed under her breath.

  "You think the principal's a vampire?" Hunter narrowed his eyes.

  "I felt it too, when I first tried to get the book." Carly offered. "It wasn't as strong as you said, Malachi, but I felt like I was being interrogated by police, or at gunpoint. Every time I talked back or raised by voice, I felt like I was committing a crime."

  "You think he was using mind compulsion on us?" Malachi crossed his arms in thought. "But... you tried to get that book more than a week ago, and the entire ability disappears after around a week."

  "That's why I said it's a stretch."

  "Hm."

  "That's not what mind compulsion feels like." Tori spoke casually.

  Everyone looked at her immediately.

  "Mind compelled victims have no memory of the act at all." She continued calmly, still watching the screen. "It's also incredibly exhausting to use. Just one command can make a vampire pass out if it's big enough."

  The room went silent.

  The only noise was the lions roaring on tv.

  Tori eventually turned her head to look at the group, her face animated and her eyes more of a pale blue than their usual dead white.

  "Oh. Hi. Sorry, I forgot I'm supposed to warn you when I'm here."

  The next few minutes were nothing more than an interrogation.

  "So you're Autumn?"

  "No."

  "Then you're Victoria?"

  "Not... completely."

  "Not completely?"

  "I... uh... I don't like thinking about this–"

  "Well you have to."

  The stage was set, the lights were lit. Tori sat at the table while the circling sharks that were her friends shoved harsh questions down her throat, still picking the wound on her knee. It was clear she hated every second.

  "Where's Zach?" She muttered. "I don't like being here without him."

  "He's out with London right now." Carly replied.

  "Oh... like... out somewhere... together..?"

  "Not a date, they're out in the woods looking for something." Hunter smirked. "But it's nice to see you jealous, still."

  Tori winced at that.

  "Why don't you like being this version of you?" Malachi spoke. "Is your other life just more important?"

  "I'm dead, Kai." Tori frowned. "You have no idea how it feels to be in this... husk. I can feel the rot both inside and out, I can smell the decay of my organs. I-I can barely talk without my mouth aching from all the holes she's bitten in my cheeks."

  "Why do you say 'she'?" Carly asked.

  "I don't really like referring to whatever's usually controlling this body as me." Tori mumbled. "It's just a brain running on empty. Like a headless chicken still roaming around a farm."

  The others shuddered at the mental picture.

  "I really wanna go back, now." Tori scratched further at her knee. "I'm worried someone might find my body the longer I'm here."

  "So when you're not here, you're this Autumn girl, right?" Malachi asked. "Are you... was she already a vampire or did she become a vampire after you... took over?"

  "She was a vampire already." Tori replied quietly.

  "So you've been living some other woman's life? Feeding on blood, having Zach's abilities?" Carly frowned.

  "Some things are really different." Tori looked up at her. "There's some things Zach can do that I can't, and vice versa. Like, when Zach feeds on someone, he kind of takes on what they were feeling, yknow? He feels their pain. I've never done that."

  "Well, he's never body-swapped." Hunter rolled his eyes.

  Tori hesitantly nodded.

  "Look, I really should go. I've never been here for this long, and it's really starting to freak me out." Tori pleaded. "We can talk some other day, but god, please tell me first. Don't do what Zach did. I nearly fell down a flight of stairs because of him."

  Carly chuckled slightly.

  "Okay. That's fair." She nodded. "Um, I guess the main thing on my mind right now is: you've clearly learned a lot about vampirism since this whole body double situation thing happened. I mean, you know far more about mind compulsion than we do. Do you have a mentor or something?"

  "All alone. Just my own experience." Tori shook her head. "But what you were saying earlier about the principals... do they really know everything?"

  The group nodded.

  Tori shuddered.

  "That's somewhat terrifying."

  "Still haven't told Zach yet, actually." Hunter took out his phone. "Over text is probably not the best, but he'll survive."

  "Uh, you said he's in the woods?" Tori gulped. "What woods?"

  "Up near Red Hill, I think." Hunter furrowed his brow. "Why?"

  Tori suddenly shot dead pale and slumped, immediately returning back into the husk she usually was.

  The group sighed in unison.