I Must Be Crazy

Daniel Vaun was also on his own, and he couldn’t quite work out why. He’d looked all over the house, and in all the usual haunts where his children and their nanny would be likely to be; they were nowhere to be found. There was no note, no nothing. Now that he thought of it, he hadn’t seen them around the house in a while, and of course there was the issue at the high school. All in all, Daniel was worried.
Once he was sure he’d completely exhausted all of his other ideas, he got in his car and drove to Lissy’s school. It was Saturday, so it probably wouldn’t be open, but teachers did lots of overtime, didn’t they? Didn’t they? He always remembered his own teachers complaining about it when he was back at school. So there was a chance, a teeny, tiny, weeny little chance, that she would be there.
His luck held out, and he found Miss Annie Plum in her classroom, making a new wall display. She glanced up as he came in uncertainly.
“Ah, Mr Vaun? Could you hold this for me, please?” She held out the end of a piece of rainbow coloured wool. Nonplussed, he took it, and she went across to the other side of the classroom, kicked off her shoes and climbed on a desk. Daniel watched as she tied her end of the wool onto a small nail in the very corner of the ceiling.
“What are you making?”
“It’s in preparation for Christmas time, we’ll be making cards. Then we can hang them up here until it’s time to take them home.” She jumped off the desk and came over to claim the other end of the wool. As she tied it in the corner, so that the wool went diagonally across the ceiling of the classroom, she asked, “What exactly are you doing here, Mr Vaun? It’s Saturday. From what I’ve heard you should either be working or spending time with your children. And as you are apparently not working, you definitely should be spending time with your children.” The look she gave him could have melted plastic. Daniel gulped.
“That’s the problem,” he said. “I can’t find them.”
“You’ve lost your children.” She stared at him for a moment, then jumped down from the desk with a sigh. She brushed a bit of dust off her skirt. “And I thought I’d heard it all.”
“I’ve not lost them!” he protested weakly. “I just… can’t find them. Darcie, too, they’re all nowhere to be found.”
Miss Plum shook her head, packing up the wool and various other things she’d been using for the display. “Well, at least we can assume they’re probably with a responsible adult.”
“Unlike usual?” muttered Daniel, half to himself. She looked at him in surprise.
“Sorry?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “Uh, nothing-”
“Tell me what you said.”
The teacher tone of voice she’d just used had its effect, and he said automatically, “Unlike usual, I thought you were meaning…”
The teacher put everything in the cupboard, frowning. “I didn’t say that.”
“But you meant it.”
“Daniel, I don’t think you’re a bad parent.” Miss Plum looked directly at him as she picked up her coat and slipped her shoes back on. “I just think there are a lot of things you could do better. And, for your information, if I think the parents of my students are not responsible adults, I tell them that, and I tell them that simply and without any kind of embarrassment on my part. I do not… imply things like that.”
Daniel looked down at his shoes, feeling like he was a little boy made to sit in the naughty corner again. Looking at him, Miss Plum smiled a little, and patted his shoulder.
“Come on, then. Let’s go and look for them.”

They drove around for about an hour, looking all over. Eventually, Daniel shook his head in despair.
“We’re not going to find them. Where on Earth could they be?”
“Who knows? Maybe we just missed them.” Miss Plum gasped as someone stepped into the road in front of them. Braking sharply, Daniel called out of his window at them.
“Watch where you’re going!”
“Oh no,” said Miss Plum. “It’s Mr Nebus.”
Daniel’s eyes widened. “Oh… so it is. I probably shouldn’t have shouted at him like that.”
Ignoring the fact that there was a queue of cars beginning to form behind Daniel’s blue Passat, Mr Nebus came up to Miss Plum’s window and shouted into it, “There you are, Annie, I’ve been meaning to speak to you about something!”
“Is this really the time or place, Mr Nebus?” Miss Plum asked, over the sound of car horns. The headmaster tutted irritably.
“Honestly. Unlock the back door, please, this is urgent.” Once he was in the car, he leaned forward as they drove away. “Annie, those teachers you found have been deeply disappointing.”
“Oh?” said Miss Plum, only half listening. “How so?”
“Well, the clear answer is that they have not been teaching. A number of days over the past week they’ve simply disappeared halfway through the day and not returned - no thank you or by your leave, no mention of it at all, in fact. Oh, there’ve been substitutes turning up to replace them, ones we haven’t hired or even known about, but I was under the impression that the whole point of these people is to get rid of the need for substitutes!”
“You say they’re not ones we know? Not from the usual place?”
“No, not in the least. I wouldn’t have found out unless I’d walked in on one of the classes being taught by some strange man in a kilt! I mean, Annie, a kilt! A real, honest-to-goodness skirt-like kilt. Who in their right mind teaches in a kilt?”
“A Scottish person?” hazarded the teacher. “Mr Nebus, I’m sure they all had perfectly good reason-”
“But they didn’t tell me! If they had good reasons, then surely they could just have… turned up in my office, explained the situation and left! I’m a reasonable man, aren’t I, Miss Plum?”
“You certainly are, Mr Nebus, you certainly are.”
“Then why didn’t they ask?” he wailed. “For all I know they’ve been sloping off for a fag behind the gym!” He massaged the bridge of his nose. “And then there’s this whole business with the high school…”
Miss Plum looked down. She still hadn’t told anyone about what she’d seen happening in the street. None of the other teachers seemed to have seen it, for reasons she couldn’t explain, but she’d spent the rest of the afternoon trying to explain things to her class. She only hoped they hadn’t gone home and told their parents what they’d seen, or she’d probably be dragged out and flogged for telling them scary stories or something of the like.
“I don’t suppose you’ve had any news relating to that?” Daniel asked, tapping on the steering wheel uncomfortably. “All I know is… well, what’s been on the news. And… there was a letter on the dining room table saying something about how Markus was wanted for questioning.”
“Your son?” Mr Nebus exclaimed. “Does he have a history of mental disease and violent crime?”
“No!” Daniel exclaimed angrily. Miss Plum glanced behind her.
“You’re talking about Markus Vaun, Mr Nebus. Don’t you remember him? He was in last year’s Year Six.”
The headmaster hesitated. “Oh… oh, yes. Well… they do say it’s always the quiet ones…”
“I seriously doubt he had anything to do with it,” she said curtly. “Now then, have you spoken to me about what you wanted to?”
“Well, yes -”
“Well then, please feel free to leave at any time. We are, in fact, very busy.”
“O-oh. Well… see you soon, Miss Plum.”
“Bye, Mr Nebus.”
The headmaster got out of the car and closed the door almost reverently before hurrying away. For a while, there was dead silence in the car.
“You don’t think-” Daniel began.
“No,” said Annie. “I don’t.” She glanced at Daniel. “What do you know about Darcie?”
“What do you mean? I know she’s a nanny, she was born in France or something…”
“Ah. No… never mind.” Miss Plum glanced out of the window. “Go to the Agency. I have a hunch.”

The front of the Agency looked as unimpressive as ever. Daniel and Annie kept to one side of the pavement to allow a small group of people pass them; they looked like they were going to a fancy dress party or something, wearing cloaks and swords, and one of them a huge mask. Miss Plum watched them go for a moment, then hurried to catch up with Daniel.
“Here you all are!” he exclaimed, on opening the door and spotting his children.
“And you,” Miss Plum said dryly to her fellow teachers, who exchanged glances.
“To what do we owe the pleasure?” Hadrian asked cordially, bowing with his usual old-fashioned good manners. Ignoring him, Daniel hurried past and swept Lissy and Markus up in a hug.
“Where have all of you been? I feel I haven’t seen you in weeks!”
“Dad!” exclaimed Tracy, a little guiltily. “I though you were working…
“I was, but I’m not now.” He smiled at her. “I was worried when you weren’t home. And you!” He looked down at Markus. “I’ve been hearing things about you.” His son looked away.
“Something came up,” Tracy explained quietly, pulling Markus towards her. Confused, Daniel let him go, wondering what was happening.
“Please don’t worry, Mr Vaun, we have everything under control,” Zariya said, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. She jumped as Miss Plum zoned in on her.
“Which reminds me. I believe we have something we need to discuss.”
“Er.” Zariya peered over her shoulder, giving Crispin and Hadrian a pleading look. The vampire came to her aid with a sigh and a put-upon expression.
“I believe we do, Miss Plum, but it’s not Zariya you need to single out.” He glanced at Daniel. “In fact… I think we all need to talk. The time for secrecy has passed. This no longer involves only a few people.”
“Huh?” Daniel said, looking from Hadrian to Miss Plum to Darcie to Markus. “What’s going on?”
Hadrian smiled. “Fear not, Mr Vaun. All will be explained.”

“So, let me get this straight,” said Daniel after an hour or so. “You’re all weird creatures, and my son formed some kind of agreement with a demon who is now on the rampage?”
“That about sums it up, yes,” said Hadrian, nodding. Daniel looked at the Zariya-wolf, who was lying on the floor with her nose on her paws, looking bored.
“And this is my proof?”
“Well, if you want more I can always suck your blood,” the vampire said. Wolf-Zariya rolled her eyes and stood up. Shaking herself, she turned back into a human.
“Do you really need more proof? Tracy believed us after seeing me turn.”
“But… but…”
“Yes, yes, your whole world is crumbling beneath you, you’re having trouble coming to terms with the truth of reality, blah blah blah,” she interrupted impatiently. “To be perfectly honest I would be lying if I told you I cared. Perhaps if you spent more damn time with your own kids you’d have noticed something was going on.” Daniel winced and looked away.
Hadrian put a hand firmly on Zariya’s shoulder. “That’s quite enough.”
She glared at him, turning her head. “What? No it’s not, he’s being stupidly narrow-minded!”
The vampire’s mouth twitched into a brief smile. “Don’t you remember?”
“Remember? Remember what?”
“When you first learned of what you are. How did you take it? Did you find it… easy? Werewolves are almost never afflicted with lycanthropy from birth, so you wouldn’t have grown up used to it. In our world, you are… inferior. The ruling class are the humans, yet, born into a human family, you became a werewolf.” He squeezed her shoulder. “How did you take it? Think about it.” Zariya stared up at him, and he shook her shoulder gently. “Now, don’t be so hard on him.” Leaving Zariya standing staring into nothingness, Hadrian ushered Daniel into a chair.
“What were you again?” the man asked, rubbing his head. “A vampire?”
“That’s right.”
“He tried to suck the blood of the school hamster, I saw him!” Lissy piped up, grabbing hold of his arm and beaming at her father, who blinked back at her, and then at the vampire.
“You… did?”
“Ah… I thought we agreed not to talk about this?” Hadrian whispered to Lissy, who giggled.
“He’s my daddy, he won’t tell!”
The vampire sighed. “I only hope that’s true.” Daniel blinked at him, and he continued, “The fact of the matter is that your children are in this neck deep, and there’s nothing which will easily get them out. The only thing to do now is to keep moving forward. I’d imagine you saw our hunters moving out, since you arrived when you did?”
“Hunters… the people in cloaks and stuff? And the mask?” Miss Plum asked. He nodded.
“Those are the ones. We should be going to check on them soon, I think.”
“You’re taking this well,” Daniel said weakly to Miss Plum. She looked away.
“She already knew,” said Darcie with a grin. “Or at least, partly.”
“She did? How?”
“I explained some of it to her, when she saw us fighting Tiar in the street.” Hadrian straightened his tie. “I don’t think she really believed us, but perhaps this has convinced her. In any case, we really should be going.”
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Daniel asked him. He raised an eyebrow.
“Safe? Of course not. Don’t be silly. It’s extremely dangerous.” He smiled down at Lissy, who grinned up at him, still hanging onto his arm. “Let’s go, shall we?”