**(Elliot's Perspective)**
This feeling is utterly bizarre. All morning, my gaze has been pulled towards Leah as if by invisible strings. I watch the strands of hair that fall when she bends to take notes, the faint blush that colors her cheeks when a teacher calls her name, the way her eyes crinkle when she laughs with friends.
My family adheres to ancient traditions, generations of strict rules against harming humans, sustaining ourselves with specially formulated, animal-derived "nutritional supplements." I have never felt this… near-instinctual pull towards any human before. But today, this craving to be near her neck, to feel the warm pulse beneath her skin, haunts my thoughts like a phantom.
**What the hell is wrong with me?** I'm just a young man following ancient codes. The fami
