I Must Be Crazy

The sound of a police siren is a vaguely unsettling one. They were hearing a lot of them, mostly heading in the direction of the high school, but some going elsewhere. Tiar seemed to have gotten lost somewhere on the way; they’d been waiting for about ten minutes now.
“Do you think she’s gone somewhere else?” Tracy wondered, sitting on the bench with her arm around Markus’s shoulders. Her brother was staring at nothing, his head resting on her shoulder. Darcie shook her head.
“I can still feel her coming, I’m sure the others can too. I think she’s going in all sorts of crazy directions, though, so it might be a while before she gets here.”
One of the police sirens was dopplering towards them; at last the car came into sight, and pulled onto the pavement. The two policemen inside jumped out and hurried up to the three teachers at the gate. Hadrian went forward and spoke to them; they were gesturing at Markus, trying to motion him over to them.
“They don’t look happy,” said Darcie.
“They wouldn’t be, they’re investigating a multiple murder in a school,” murmured Tracy.
“This is true. Markus, we should go and talk to them.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Markus, we should really go and talk to them, because Tiar is quite a bit closer now and it would be very good if they weren’t still here by the time she arrives,” Darcie said urgently. Tracy glanced at her.
“What will happen to them when she gets here? What’ll happen to us?”
“We’ll do everything we can to protect you, don’t worry. Them…” She chewed her lower lip for a moment. “I can’t really say. I mean - we’d have to expose ourselves in order to protect them, and then there’s all the stuff that comes with that.” Noticing Tracy’s expression, she added hurriedly, “But we’ll still do all we can, I promise. We don’t want anyone to die without cause. It would just be so much easier if they weren’t here when the worst comes to - I mean, if the worst comes to the worst.”
The blonde girl sighed and stood up, pulling Markus up with her. “Come on, then, let’s go and talk to them.”
“I don’t -”
“You don’t have a choice, you’re coming. You need to do this, it won’t be difficult.”
The police officer shoved past Hadrian as Tracy led Markus towards him. “You’re Markus Vaun?”
“Yes.”
“We’d like to ask you some questions about-”
“I know what it’s about,” snapped Markus. “What else would it be about?” The policeman looked taken aback, and removed his helmet.
“I’m sorry, Markus, but we have to take you in for questioning. A serious crime has been committed - we need to find out who did it.”
“We-” Markus started, but Tracy interrupted him: “I know it’s a lot to ask, but could it possibly wait? He’s… having some trouble. I think it would be better if he stayed with me for the moment.”
“That’s fine, you can come with him to the station,” the policeman said with a reassuring smile at Markus, although the boy wasn’t even looking at him.
“Our options have just gone out the window,” Crispin said, loudly enough to make the policeman turn. At the end of the road stood a slim figure, looking towards them. She took a few steps towards them, almost uncertainly; then, with more resolve, she strode towards them.
“Who is that?” said the policeman, more curious than anything else. His partner, who had been waiting by the car, was running to meet her. “Walking in the middle of the road like that, doesn’t she have a brain?”
“Oh no,” Markus whispered, so quietly that even Tracy could barely hear him.
“Close your eyes,” Darcie said quietly in her ear. “Trust me, if what I think is about to happen does happen, you’ll be better off not seeing it.”
“What-”
“Just do it, Tracy. You trust me, don’t you? Don’t peek. Don’t. Just do what I tell you.”
The police officer in the street had just reached Tiar, and was leaning down to speak to her. Tracy closed her eyes, and put her hand over Markus’s as well, just to be very sure; she didn’t have to wait long.
“Christ!” the policeman next to her exclaimed, and there was the sound of running footsteps. “Stay back, you people, stay back!”
“Oh no, he’s doomed,” Darcie murmured, as Tracy gingerly opened her eyes. Hadrian went further than commenting; he actually lunged at the man and grabbed his shoulders.
“You should really reconsider that action,” he said, letting go of one of his shoulders and grabbing the man’s wrist instead; he was reaching for his gun. The man tried to go for his two-way radio instead, but Hadrian stopped him again, and nodded to Tiar. The girl was still standing in the middle of the road, looking a little lost, and next to her lay what was left of the policeman. There wasn’t much, and what was left was hardly recognisable as human remains.
“Do you really think you’re going to be able to do anything against that? Whether you go up against her with a gun or with a while lot of backup, you’re all just going to be turned into big smears in the road. Understand? Don’t. Do. Anything. Leave it to us.”
“What are you going to do?” the policeman asked, hands hanging limply at his sides. Tracy felt a little sorry for him. While the police were equipped to deal with most things, young girls walking around making people explode was probably not one of them.
“We are going to stop her,” said Hadrian. “In a way which will hopefully not result in unpleasant demise for all of us, and for the children at this school. Also, in a way which doesn’t involve offensive weapons.”
“You’re going to - to just stroll up? Unarmed? After what she just did?”
“Yes, yes I am.” Hadrian sighed. “Hold this.” He took of his jacket and handed it to the man, who took it without comment. Straightening his tail and then his waistcoat, the vampire stuck his hands into his pockets and proceeded towards the girl as if he was taking a pleasant stroll on a summer afternoon. A few feet away from her, he stopped, and bounced on his heels for a few seconds. Tiar regarded him suspiciously. “Well. Good afternoon, Tiar.” He projected his voice loudly enough that everyone was able to hear him. “I think you know that you haven’t been behaving in the best manner as of late.”
Tiar scowled. “Hadrian. Go away, I want to speak to Markus. Why’s he here? Is he following me? Does he want to say sorry?”
“Can I ask you some questions?” the man said, as if he hadn’t heard her. “Why did you do this?” He lowered his voice a little. “You do know what you’ve done, don’t you? You’ve messed up things for us, for all of us. Now they’re going to know. They’re going to know that we’re different from them, and do you know what else? They’re going to assume, because of you, that all of us are dangerous and that all of us are like you.”
“I don’t care,” Tiar said stubbornly. “I was just doing what Markus asked me to do.” She glanced at the boy, huddled next to his sister, and when she returned her gaze to Hadrian her expression had changed completely, to something that could only be described as a smirk. “You know we have to do that. We’re nothing, you know - to them? We’re meaningless. We’re slaves, pawns. We’re a means to an end, nothing more. We have no feelings, no ambitions, we’re nothing.”
“Nothing has feelings and ambitions too,” said Hadrian, leaning down to put his face closer to hers. “And what you just said was utter bull. Don’t try and make up rubbish to defend your actions.”
The girl’s eyes suddenly brimmed with tears. “You’re just as mean as he is!” Hadrian grabbed her arm as she tried to put it to his face. “Let me go! You - you horrible, evil man!”
Hadrian sighed, briefly wondering why he was always forced to deal with children. He wasn’t even particularly fond of children this age, especially girls; they were bearable until slightly older than Lissy’s age, then were terribly annoying for about ten or twelve years before becoming good company once more. This also went for boy, except that the interval of annoyingness went on for up to sixteen years, and possibly even longer. “Tiar, please just behave yourself. I’m only trying to do what’s best for you. You’re confused. I don’t think you’re suited to this place or this job. You should return home, maybe get counselling or something.”
“Are you telling me I’m insane? Why are you saying these things to me? Why are you even talking to me?”
“Because I have an interest in your well-being. Please don’t make this difficult.”
The demon girl twisted out of his grasp and retreated a few steps, glaring, going towards a large truck which was parked on the opposite side of the road. Hadrian straightened up and looked at her evenly.
“I won’t go,” Tiar said at last. “I hate you. Markus is going to come with me, and-”
“Wrong answer,” said Hadrian, and lunged at her. She dodged, but the vampire’s target had apparently not been her, but the truck. Grabbing one of the straps, he pinned her against the side of the truck and swiftly wound it around her, snapping it as easily as if it was a single thread of cotton. As she struggled, he ducked around the back of the truck. As the onlookers watched in disbelief, the truck began to slowly topple over.
“No!” yelled the policeman, dropping Hadrian’s coat unceremoniously on the ground and running towards the truck. Zariya tutted, and went after him, but, realising that she wasn’t going to catch up with him in time, she dropped all pretence and shifted shape. The policeman went down easily when a large dog leaped into him.
The truck hit the ground. There was no scream from Tiar.

Golden Vale Primary School’s break time was a little later than the high school’s was. It was at break time that the three teachers, without much discussion, went to stand by the school gate, looking out at the world.
“Do you know what it was?” Zariya asked quietly, once they had stood in silence for a while.
“I can feel it coming this way,” Crispin said, idly pulling at loose threads on yet another jumper. Zariya briefly wondered how many jumpers he unravelled per year. “That’s probably not going to be a good thing.”
“I think I know who it is,” said Hadrian, who was standing with his hands in his pockets, looking detached. “It’s that demon girl who came in last year.”
“Trust you to remember something like that.” Zariya shuddered. “Wasn’t she some… relative of yours or something?”
“The niece of a friend of a friend’s cousin, I believe. Tiar, her name is. I wonder how she ended up here?”
“Well, someone hired her, of course. And now she’s coming this way, and probably not so that we can all have some tea and cake,” said Zariya, rolling her eyes.
“The question remains, what are we going to do?” said Crispin, still unravelling. He was now rolling the wool into a new ball as he unravelled. Perhaps he was intending to knit himself a new jumper.
“Well, I think that’s quite obvious,” said Hadrian. “We’re going to defend this place.” He stuck his chest out. “We’re teachers. This is a school. We must defend it and its pupils at all costs, for this is the reason why we have been put upon this Earth!”
“You’re… you’re just mad,” Zariya said, shaking her head. “It’s quite sad, really. But I do agree. We can’t let her do anything untoward to these kids. This is agency stuff. Getting them involved isn’t fair.”
“So that’s that, then.” Crispin tucked the growing ball of wool into his sleeve, which was now quite a bit shorter than his other one. “We’re staying out here until she comes?”
“If she comes here. There’s always that possibility.”
“Unlikely,” said Hadrian glumly. “She’ll probably sense us just like we sense her. She’ll come to say hi, or to see what we’re doing or something.”
“I just hope we don’t have to do any last minute stands.” Zariya began to re-tie her ponytail. “Those always do mess up your clothes a bit.”

Tracy first heard of the disturbance when someone ran past her classroom, shouting and crying. A little later, after her teacher had finally calmed the class and continued with her lesson on psychological abnormalities, Mr Arbour, one of the senior teachers, came in and pulled her out, closing the door. The class was silent, trying to hear what was being said as they spoke together gravely; at one point, Tracy’s teacher, Miss Hemmel, covered her mouth with her hand. After a few more minutes, they both came back in.
“Everyone please listen,” she said. “I need you to stay quiet for a while until we’ve finished talking to you. There’s been a problem in the school, and we need you all to go home calmly and responsibly.” Some people began to speak, but she fiercely waved them into silence. “It’s very, very important. I know some of you might need to catch buses or trains, or for some reason you might not be able to go home yet - if this applies to you, can you go to the hall and wait there. Go straight there, and if you’re going home now, go straight out of the front entrance of the school. Don’t wait for friends, and if you need to wait for siblings, do it outside.”
“What do you think’s going on?” Tracy asked Anna in a whisper. Anna, who was a sensible sort of person and one of Tracy’s closest friends, shrugged her shoulders.
“I could come up with any number of conspiracy theories, but I doubt it would help.”
Miss Hemmel looked straight at Tracy, and for a moment she thought she was about to be reprimanded for speaking. Then the teacher said, “Tracy, not you. Can you go with Mr Arbour, please?”
The blonde girl blinked, and glanced around at her classmates, who looked curiously back at her. She stood up uncertainly.
“Don’t worry about your bag, just come,” the senior teacher said impatiently as she reached under the table.
“What’s happened?” she asked once they were out of the classroom, hurrying after him; he was setting quite a pace.
“I had better warn you. You’re about to see something which will be traumatic for you, but there’s nothing else we can do.” Mr Arbour glanced sidelong at her. “It’s your brother.”
“Markus?” Tracy’s heart seemed to clench in her chest, and she grabbed the man’s sleeve in sudden fear. “What’s happened?”
“We have absolutely no idea. There’s… there’s a lot of blood, and a lot of mess, and your brother is in the middle of it and won’t move.”
Tracy stared at him. “And you think Markus is involved? Is he alright? He’s not -”
“He’s fine, I’m sure. He’s simply resisted all attempts of ours to help him, although we ourselves don’t really relish the thought of going through all that to get him. We tried to physically remove him but he fights and bites and just kicks up a fuss. We thought he might respond to you.”
They were just going into the Languages corridor at this point, and at the other end Tracy could see teachers standing around as if keeping guard. Mr Arbour lead her straight through them, but stopped about halfway down the corridor and turned to her. He put a hand on her shoulder.
“Are you feeling alright?”
“I’m fine.”
“Good. Well… prepare yourself. Your brother is sitting by the wall next to the opposite door. Try not to look around - just look straight at him, concentrate on him. He’s the only thing which needs to concern you. The rest of… the rest will just cause you unnecessary worry. Just get Markus out of there.”
Swallowing, Tracy nodded, and followed the teacher the rest of the way down the corridor. At the end, she was ushered through the doors.

She noticed the smell almost at once; it was disgusting, metallic and oppressive, and she covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, not that it really helped. Trying to fight down her natural and morbid curiosity, she kept her eyes on the huddled figure hunched against the wall opposite her. She knelt down next to him, touching his shoulder. She heard his breath catch in his throat, and he flinched away.
“Markus? Are you alright? What happened?”
His eyes opened. “Tracy?” He stared at her as if seeing a ghost.
“What happened?” she asked again, pulling him into a hug. “All this…” He shrank against her, throwing his arms around her neck and pressing his face against her shoulder. “Come, we need to get out of here.” Managing after a few tries to pull him to his feet, she led him out into the corridor, where Mr Arbour and the other teachers were waiting. Before they could intervene, the boy said into Tracy’s ear, “I hired someone from the agency.”
She frowned, glancing at him. “Why - who? Did they do this?”
“Yes. She was called Tiar. I didn’t meant this to happen.” The tone of his voice scared Tracy more than the twisted images Mr Arbour’s warnings had summoned up in her mind. It was a little hoarse, as if he was shouting, and lacked any type of life at all. Everything he said was toneless and largely uninflected. She thought briefly of people in movies, who, when presented with some kind of traumatic scene, would scream and then mostly be over it. Markus wasn’t like that. It wasn’t that easy.
“Where did she go, Markus?” Tracy turned away from the senior teacher, who was hovering next to her with clear intent to interfere. “What was she going to do next?”
“I don’t know what she was going to do. I don’t think she did either. She went…” Markus frowned, as if trying to work something out. “She went towards the tennis courts - that’s the direction of Lissy’s school, isn’t it?”
The blood drained from Tracy’s face as she realised this was true. “Sorry sir, we have to go,” she snapped at Mr Arbour, started down the corridor and ignoring all attempts to stop her. “Walk, Markus, walk!”

“My head hurts,” said Markus bleakly, about halfway to the primary school. They were cutting across the playing fields, and he kept stumbling. “I don’t know if we’ll get there in time. She started ages ahead of us.”
“Shut up and just walk, walk faster!” Tracy dragged him mercilessly onwards, not allowing trips or stumbles on either of their parts to slow them down. Soon they reached the pavement, and she lead Markus the rest of the way at a kind of clumsy half-run.
When they arrived at the front gates, not only were the three agency teachers there, but Darcie was, too. She grabbed Markus’s arm, grimly examining his colourless face.
“Damn… there’s nothing I can really say but sorry… when I see Pith next I’m going to give him a good kicking, letting you hire out that girl.”
“Is Lissy alright?” Tracy demanded at once, trying to look for any signs of chaos and destruction in the school. She could see none, and Hadrian nodded.
“The demon girl has not been past here yet.”
“Demon girl?” Markus said weakly, refusing to let go of Tracy. The vampire nodded.
“She’s… not the most natural creature in the world. I think the agency had rehabilitated or something. So much for that. There’s little we can really do, other than wait and try to head her off.” He glanced at Markus. “He’s in no shape to be anywhere near the front lines. He’s going into shock or something.”
“I agree.” Darcie helped Tracy to lead Markus over to one of the benches. He sat down gratefully and pressed his hands to his temples. Darcie felt in her pocket. “I’m sure I had some kind of cure-all in here…”
“She’s getting closer,” Zariya said tensely, shifting her body ever so slightly so that she’d be ready to do anything at any given moment.
“Well,” said Hadrian, at last taking his hands out of his pockets. “If I was religious, I’d say that now would be a good time to bow our heads and pray. But I’m not, so let’s just say that if you die, Crispin, I will never forgive you.”
“So I’m chopped liver, am I?”
“You, Zariya, are possibly only slightly more easy to kill than I am. And that’s a compliment.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll take it.”
They waited for the bringer of doom and destruction to arrive.