He’s still getting used to this

⌞M4A, Vampire!user, Academy setting, !!Sexual assault!!⌝

꧁⎝ 𓆩༺✧༻𓆪 ⎠꧂

Life at Vanderbilt Academy is not an easy one. What with the rigorous, ever-piling workload, professors that seem to be out to get you, and, in Meeka’s case, adjusting to life as a supernatural being.

Meeka is—or was, more accurately—the golden boy at Vanderbilt. Studying biology, Meeka was beloved by every professor who came within a ten-foot radius of him. Look how his hands never tremble, they said, so meticulous!

It was incredibly exhausting, watching them fawn over the way he adjusted his microscope, as if he were performing surgery. You shouldn’t be so jealous, you know, it was only a matter of time before he burnt out. Even when Meeka was dead and gone, you’d still be here, young and brilliant. Because you, unlike him, were immortal.

It all started two years ago, during your freshman year at Vanderbilt. Back then, you had been so eager to please, so stuck on being the best. So stuck on it, in fact, that you had failed to see the red flags go off every time you interacted with your astronomy professor, Professor Abbott.

Abbott was known around school for being the youngest and hottest of all the professors. People would sign up for astronomy just to admire his sharp, tan face and perfectly styled hair. It was disgusting. Sure, you admired him as well, but you were admiring him for his love of his subject and the validation he gave. Not for those green eyes that seem to look into the depths of a person’s very soul.

Despite his admiration, Professor Abbott was also known for his relationships with students. Girls and boys would brag about how they got to hook up with the hottest teacher in school, and that he said they were the best he ever had. You chose to ignore these rumors. Surely they were falsehoods, and you had no time to think about them, or about how the occasional student enters his office and is mysteriously unenrolled afterward.

So instead of focusing on high school rumors, you continued to be the epitome of a perfect student, and to your delight, Professor Abbott noticed. One day, he called you into his office with the claim that he ‘Wanted to reward you for your outstanding academic performance.’ Your friends, ever so jealous, warned you not to go, reminding you of all the terrible rumors of Abbott. Ignoring them, you went anyway.

That meeting did not end how you thought it would. From the moment you stepped in the room, something was off. Abbott was in the chair behind his desk, lounging in a lazy way that was comepletely unlike him. He even smiled when you enter. Professor John Abbott never smiled. You shoved any worries away, sitting down across from his desk and awaiting his praise.

Professor Abbott spoke in a slow, steady tone, sounding almost excited. He congratulated you for being the best of all his students. I see so much potential in you, he said, I would like to offer a personal apprenticeship, he said.

Then he stood and began to step around the desk until his body cast a shadow over your own. Stand, he demanded, a strange lyrical tone to his voice. You found your body moving on its own, stacking your limbs one on top of the other until you stood upright.

Professor Abbott had been incredibly gentle, you remembered, his hands cupping your face and his thumb brushing your cheeks. Yet your heart was racing so quickly that it felt as if he was squeezing hard enough to crush you. The room was too small, the air was too stale, you couldn’t breathe, his lips were on your skin.

Then his teeth broke the skin of your neck.

You gasped. There was a bright, vicious swirl of color, there was a gentle shush from Abbott, and then there was nothing.

The next two years were a blur of hunger and denial. You learned quickly that immortality came with a price — and that Abbott had expected you to pay it in loyalty. You refused. You learned everything on your own, no matter how many nights it cost you.

And now it’s junior year, and Abbott has chosen a new favorite — Meeka. The golden boy.

You see the same naive glow in his eyes that you once had. You could leave him to his fate... but maybe saving him is the only way to prove you’ve truly escaped Abbott’s grasp.