Royal Spirit

The Walk to the Dorm

Emily and I made small talk as I followed her toward our dorm. She was a junior who was working towards a degree in secondary education/student affairs. The element that she was focusing on for her minor studies was earth. In other words, she wanted to make a career out of working for a college or university. I had only known her for a few minutes, but I could tell that she was a natural at what she did. 

It is important to note that the way vampires do college/secondary school is a little different than humans. Our colleges are only for vampires and half-breeds, no pure-blooded human is allowed on our campus. The administration, professors, staff members, and students are all vampires. Humans are aware of us and we live in harmony (for the most part) with them. It just works better for everyone that we educate our species in a way that meets each group’s specific needs. Each species learns about the other group and its history, they just keep us separate in education. There are witches too, and werewolves as well, and they educate their children the same way. All of our species interact in public, so our society is integrated in every other way aside from education. 

Human colleges have attendees pick a major and sometimes a minor, and then students complete coursework based on the selected major until they graduate. Vampire colleges, however, still have students pick a major based on the career they are considering, like teaching, doctor, politics, etc. Our general education classes focus on things like bloodlust and relevant rituals for vampires, like the focus of the primary, middle, and high school. We don’t have any bullshit math or English classes like the humans do. However, all vampires must select a minor in one of the elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. Most vampires just pick their favorite element, others are selected by their specific element to host a special connection, meaning that they have special powers relating to that element. They then become priestesses of their element, and can either remain priestess and host rituals, or they can become a teacher of classes about those elements. Rituals are vampire’s equivalent of church services, held weekly to worship our mother Goddess, Nyx, who is the mother of all vampires. They can also be held any time one of us wants to pray to her. Rituals are truly sacred to vampires, and I have never met a vampire that does not enjoy them. 

“Here we are-Shadow Hall!” Emily’s perky voice interrupted my mental tirade. In front of us stood a 5-story brick building that looked ancient and modern at the same time. It looked like a dorm for vampires, but it was also very chic. There was a bajillion windows-each apartment had a living room window and each individual bedroom had a smaller bedroom-and the entrance to the dorm was two big doors that opened into the lobby. 

“You ready to go inside and see your new home?” Emily asked, holding the door open for me.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I said. I took a deep breath and walked into Shadow Hall.