<h4>Chapter 22: A Desperate Search for Answers</h4>


    I wondered if now that I knew the horrors of this ce, Sara would finally tell me about rk. So, I asked again.


    "Sara, I know you said it’s taboo to say his name, but... can you tell me what happened to rk?"


    The moment his name left my lips, her entire body tensed. She went pale—<i>deathly</i> pale—her wide eyes darting around the room as if something, or someone, might be lurking in the shadows, listening. Watching.


    She looked terrified.


    And yet, we were alone. Weren’t we?


    My chest tightened. Why does she always react like this? Every single time I mention him, it’s like she’s afraid reality itself might crack open and swallow her whole.


    What really happened to my twin?


    Sara shook her head, violently, in pure denial. She wasn’t ready to talk. And I could see it in her eyes—maybe she never would be. The fear, the hesitation, the sheer <i>dread</i>—whatever happened to rk wasn’t just bad. It was something unspeakable.


    I swallowed my frustration, but the anger still simmered inside me. She <i>knew.</i> She knew the truth, and yet she refused to tell me, even when I had already seen things that shattered the lies we once believed.


    The myths. The monsters. The truth.


    Here, in this ce, humans weren’t just the weaker species—we were nothing. Lower than pets. ythings. Food.


    So what was she still trying to protect me from?


    Gritting my teeth, I stood. "Fine." My voice was tight, clipped. If she wasn’t going to tell me, I’d find my own answers. I turned and left, mming the door behind me.


    As soon as I stepped into my room, I locked the door and rushed to myptop.


    My hands were shaking as I typed.


    How to kill a vampire.


    How to kill a werewolf.


    Search results flooded the screen—folklore, myths, fiction. Useless. Wooden stakes? Holy water? Silver bullets? <i>What kind of joke was this?</i>


    My heart pounded in my ears. There had to be a way. Even if I wasn’t strong enough to fight them, I had to know something. Some weakness. Some way to keep them at bay—long enough to escape this godforsaken ce.


    I refused to believe I was trapped here forever.


    There had to be a way out.


    Right?


    Maybe the whole <i>garlic, wooden stake, silver, holy water</i> thing wasn’tplete bullshit after all.


    One of them <i>had</i> to work. Right?


    I mean, a few days ago, if someone had told me vampires and werewolves were real, I would haveughed in their face. So who’s to say some of these old legends weren’t at least partially true?


    But sunlight? Bullshit.


    Don’t ask me how I know—I just do. Because I saw it with my own eyes. I had thought Sara was with her boyfriend, that they were just making out in the courtyard. But no.


    He was feeding on her.


    <fnf8e4> Th?s chapter is updated by find?novel</fnf8e4>


    And the worst part? The sun was shining down on them, clear as day, and he didn’t so much as <i>sizzle.</i> No bursting into mes. No dramatic <i>poof</i> into ash like in the movies.


    So, yeah. That was a lie.


    Which meant holy water, silver, wolfsbane (<i>don’t even ask me what the hell that is, because I have no clue</i>), wooden stakes, and garlic... might not be as effective as the inte and Hollywood led us to believe.


    But still—one of them had to work.


    Right?


    Sara showed up at my door, ready for us to head to school together.


    I didn’t go.


    Why the hell would I? Why would I willingly walk back into that ce, knowing now that it was nothing but a glorified hunting ground? A lie wrapped up in pretty brochures and fake promises.


    Besides, I hated school. I only came here for rk. And now that I was screwed—trapped like every other human here—what was the point?


    Sara insisted it was mandatory.


    <i>Mandatory, my ass.</i>


    Did they really expect me to sit in ss, pretending nothing happened? To act like I didn’t know what lurked in the shadows? Like I didn’t know what they were doing to humans like me? Like Sara?


    Did they expect me to just y along, let them sink their fangs into me whenever they got thirsty, or use me as a toy when they were bored?


    No. Not happening.


    Yeah, maybe I was stubborn. But seriously—who in my position would go back to that ce and pretend everything was fine? Who would sit at a desk, take notes, listen to lectures, all while knowing they were just waiting for the next feeding?


    Not me.


    Before she left, Sara gave me onest piece of advice: lock the door and keep the windows shut.


    Like that would do anything.


    As if a simple lock could stop them.


    I had seen what those creatures were capable of. I had watched them tear through the airport like it was made of paper, breaking down doors, shattering ss like it was nothing. If Reed or ze wanted to get in, no deadbolt or barricade would stop them.


    Still... maybe it wouldn’t hurt to try something.


    Garlic. Silver utensils.


    Yeah, it sounded ridiculous, but at this point, what did I have to lose? If garlic could keep ze at bay, if silver could keep Reed at least a meter away, then it was worth a shot.


    And if it didn’t work?


    I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.


    I didn’t know if staying in instead of going to campus, like Sara advised, was the right decision. But one thing became clear as the hours passed—this ce was more unsettling during the day than it was at night.


    You’d think daylight would bring some sense of normalcy. That people would be moving about, that life would go on. But no.


    The boarding house was eerily empty. Not a single soul. Not even the receptionist—the olddy who always sat behind the desk, watching.


    The silence was thick, pressing in from all sides. It was heavier than the darkness of the hallways at school. More suffocating. More wrong.


    And somehow, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t as alone as I thought.