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The kind of silence that stretched too long, too tense, filled only by the sound of heavy breathing and the faint, distant drip of something—blood?—hitting the floor.

Y/N's breath caught in her throat as she stared at the scene before her.

Calixto stood completely at ease, his golden eyes burning into hers, his lips still curled into that slow, knowing smile. Before they looked back at the other student.

The human student he had thrown across the room lay crumpled on the floor, groaning in pain.

No one moved. No one spoke.

Y/N could feel every human student in the room waiting, holding their breath, praying that this wouldn't escalate further. But of course, it did.

A figure stirred from the vampire's side of the room.

Silas.

His chair scraped against the tiled floor as he stood up, the sound slicing through the suffocating silence like a knife. He walked forward, slow and deliberate, his dark eyes locked onto the student on the floor.

Then he crouched down.

Y/N watched, horrified, as Silas reached out—not with his hands, but with just a finger under the student's chin, tilting his face up as he flinched.

Silas smiled, "Fucking pathetic human." his voice was quiet, but in the absolute silence of the cafeteria, it carried like a gunshot.

Y/N's stomach twisted. someone please do something.

★

Azul spoke, "We're really going to start fights on the first day?" his voice was calm, bored—like he was talking about the weather.

Calixto didn't break eye contact with the slumped guy, didn't even blink. "I barely touched him" he murmured.

Aisha gripped Y/N's wrist under the table. Her fingers were cold. "This is bad.." she whispered.

"You should apologize" a new voice said suddenly.

Y/N's breath hitched.

The words had come from another human.

A senior boy—tall, broad-shouldered, and stupidly brave—stood from one of the nearby tables, fists clenched at his sides. His friends looked at him like he had lost his damn mind.

Silas tilted his head. "Excuse me?"

The senior swallowed hard but didn't back down. "I said, you should apologise."

A sharp, low laugh rang through the air.

Adrian.

His lazy smirk was still in place, his dark eyes flickering with something cold and dangerous.

"You should sit back down" Adrian said, voice dripping with mockery. "Before you say something really stupid."

The senior didn't move.

A heartbeat passed.

Then another.

Then—

"Enough."

The word cut through the room like a blade, sharp and commanding.

All eyes turned toward the source.

A man stood near the cafeteria entrance, tall, imposing, and very, very pissed off.

Mr. Laurent—a vampire professor.

For a split second, the tension in the room snapped.

The vampires didn't look guilty. Not even close, but they did pause.

Calixto exhaled through his nose, like he was bored, and stepped away from the human student.

Silas let go of the boy's chin.

Adrian sighed.

Azul stretched.

"Fine" Calixto muttered like he was doing them a favor.

The human student scrambled to his feet as his friends dragged him up and practically ran out of the cafeteria.

Y/N let out a slow breath, but as the tension faded and the cafeteria returned to its uneasy normalcy, she couldn't shake the feeling that something had shifted.

Calixto had looked at her.

Not the boy he attacked.

Not the senior who challenged him.

Her.

And in his eyes, she had seen something she wasn't sure she wanted to understand.

★

The rest of lunch was a blur.

The hushed whispers, the stolen glances, the way human students kept their heads down like they were afraid even looking in the vampires' direction would invite trouble.

Y/N felt the weight of it—the way the room had changed.

But more than anything, she felt their presence.

The vampires had gone back to their usual seats, looking completely unbothered, but Y/N knew better. She could still feel Calixto's gaze, heavy on the side of her face, waiting for her to look back as the professor escorted them out.

She wouldn't.

"Are we just going to pretend that didn't happen?" Aisha whispered sharply, her grip still tight around her fork.

Julia let out a slow breath. "What else are we supposed to do? Report them?" She let out a humourless laugh. "To who? The school literally put them here knowing exactly what they are."

Y/N hated that she was right.

They could complain all they wanted, but nothing was going to change the fact that they were now stuck with them. Monsters in uniforms.

Her stomach twisted.

"They think they can do whatever they want," Aisha muttered.

"They can," Julia pointed out. "And they will."

Y/N clenched her jaw.

She didn't like this. The feeling of helplessness. The feeling of knowing that they were surrounded by creatures who could snap them in half like twigs if they felt like it.

She hated it.

And what she hated even more was the way they looked at her.

Not just Calixto—Silas. Azul. Adrian.

She had felt their stares, their amusement, their curiosity.

And she had a very, very bad feeling about it.

★

"Boys."

The four pairs of eyes glanced up at the voice, each of them slumped in the chairs of the dark office room.

Her sharp gaze moved from her papers to them, as she straightened her back. there was an eerie silence within the small room, lighting dimmed by the tinted windows and large drapes against the dark glass.

"I thought we knew to stay out of trouble here? Perhaps not."

Calixto scoffed as he lazily looked at her "Headmistress Valerie—all due respect ma'am, but that moron started it?"

"He said— "

"That's enough Silas." She raised her pale, slender hand "I expect more from you. And you three as well. I want to hear no more of this human vs vampires nonsense, at least not from our students, because I'll be the one dealing with it. Is that clear?"

"Yes Headmistress." Azul, Adrian and Calixto agreed collectively.

"Silas?" She raised a brow,

"Yes mother.."

★

The day dragged on after that.

No one really talked about what happened, but it was there, lingering in the air, thick with unease.

Marcus Ford—the senior who had spoken up—was nowhere to be seen after lunch.

Not in the halls. Not in class.

It sent a cold shiver down Y/N's spine.

By the time the final bell rang, she was more than ready to leave.

She stepped outside with Julia and Aisha, the cold air hitting her skin as they walked toward the front gate.

"I just wanna go home and pretend today never happened," Julia muttered.

Aisha scoffed. "I don't think we're getting that luxury."

Y/N sighed, rubbing her temples. "Let's just get out of here."