The world looked different when you knew what you really were.
Jayden watched his family from the window that night — the same people who had taught him to tie his shoes, say grace before meals, and keep his elbows off the table. Everything about them was warm, familiar, safe.
And everything about him was now secret, dark, dangerous.
But he had made a choice.
"I'll protect them," he whispered to himself, clutching the edge of the curtain.
"Even if it means lying to their faces… even if it means living two lives."
---
The Pact With Himself
That night, Jayden took an oath.
He scribbled it in his old journal — the one Mrs. Adelwin gave him when he turned thirteen.
> I will not feed on the innocent.
I will not harm my family.
I will learn to control what I am…
Without becoming a monster.
It was easier to write than to believe. But he needed something to hold onto. Something that would stop him from slipping into the wrong side of the shadows.
---
The Crimson Hotel — Again
The hotel looked abandoned by day, but at night it came alive like a heart awakening after centuries of sleep.
Jayden returned, his hoodie drawn low, hands in his pockets. Inside, it was quiet and dim, the smell of candle wax and blood lingering faintly in the air.
Veyna was waiting — the pale woman with fire-red eyes who had first told him the truth.
"Back so soon," she said, swirling a glass of dark liquid. "Has the hunger brought you back, or the questions?"
"Both," Jayden answered. "I want to know how to… live. Without hurting the people I care about."
She smiled faintly, not unkindly. "Then you'll need to learn control. Discipline. Restraint. Harder things than you think."
"I'm ready," Jayden said.
Her gaze sharpened. "We'll see."
---
Training Begins
Veyna took him to the lower floors — a hidden part of the hotel where new vampires were taught not to lose themselves to bloodlust.
Here, Jayden saw others like him: some barely more than children, some fully grown — all struggling with the weight of their cravings.
They trained with dummies, inhaled blood-scented smoke without feeding, meditated in silence.
"Control your breath, even if it does not exist," Veyna said. "Still your senses, even when they scream."
Jayden didn't know if he believed in all this vampire zen stuff, but he tried.
Each time he pictured the Adelwins, his focus sharpened. They were his anchor.
---
Secrets at Home
Back home, things got harder.
He learned to pretend to eat, to stay away from the kitchen when someone had a cut, and to sleep during the day when his cravings hit hardest.
He blamed everything on stress, exams, or being a teenager. The family believed him — for now.
But he started to feel the cracks in his mask. His smile felt heavier. His eyes darted too much. And his heart — or whatever was left of it — never stopped racing when he hugged them.
> What if I slip?
What if I bite someone in my sleep?
---
The Other Vampires
One night at the hotel, Jayden met others who had also taken oaths — vampires who lived in hiding, feeding from animal blood or donated supplies.
A quiet boy named Ronan told him, "It's hell some days. You'll smell blood on the wind and want to tear something apart. But if you have something — someone — worth holding onto… it helps."
Jayden nodded. "I do."
---
One Mistake
But no double life is perfect.
At school, during gym class, a student scraped his knee. The blood scent hit Jayden like a punch to the chest.
His pupils dilated. His throat burned. He stumbled backward and fled to the bathroom, locking himself in a stall.
He bit his own hand to stop himself.
He cried there for the first time in weeks.
I'm losing it.
But I have to keep going.
---
A Message in Blood
That night, another letter appeared under his pillow — he still didn't know who was sending them.
> "The deeper you go, the more the shadows demand. You cannot walk both paths forever. Choose soon. — V."
Jayden stared at it long into the night.
He hadn't realized that not choosing was also a kind of choice.