Letters to Romeo

Author: Thank you to the readers who have been voting with their power stones, tickets and commenting <3

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Julie walked as fast as she could from the cemetery, which lasted for twenty seconds before she started to run towards her Dormitorium. On reaching her dorm, she fumbled with her key. Inserting it into the door, she unlocked it and got it open as quickly as she could. Once it was open, she stepped inside and turned the two locks.

Her heartbeat had increased out of fear as the certainty of the uncertainty she had been having about this place all this time.

Vampires.

There were vampires in this university, dead people and graves in the restricted side of the forest. Walking to her table, she picked up the bottle of water and gulped it down until the very last few drops in it.

When she closed her eyes, the names on the headstones flashed in front of her eyes. It didn't stop there, as she remembered one of the student's faces and also Roman's face. Red eyes and fangs.

What did the graves mean? Julie questioned herself.

Of course, they were dead! Vampires did sleep in their coffins and then woke up from it, so that was that, said Julie to herself.

Slowly realization hit her about the incident that took place on the day of Hallow. He had meant to take a bite from her, and both the times she had come close in contact with the vampires, Roman was the one to save her.

What now? What was she supposed to do? Was she supposed to pull out her bag and start packing clothes so that she wouldn't be the next beverage?

She had found out the big secret about Veteris, and from what she knew, none of the students ever spoke about it.

Mr. Evans… holy crap! She internally panicked.

The secret had been guarded, unbeknownst to the humans who believed Veteris was the most reputed university.

Julie would like to fix that, she thought in her mind. Veteris was reputed for having dead students as their students!

Roman was a vampire, a being who depended on blood. Blood… the can. She remembered asking for his coke can once, but instead of giving it to her, he had told her to take it from his lips, knowing well she would never do something so embarrassing in public. This was why things that he and his friends ordered were expensive compared to what she brought from the lunchroom.

The Corvin had led her outside the Veteris, pointing its hand to the road that led away from the university.

Away from the place that was filled with blood-sucking creatures. Julie couldn't help but worry that someone would come to take a bite from her now. As fancy as the creatures seemed on TV and books, it wasn't the same in reality. Especially after she had almost tried to be sucked out dry from one of the students.

"Calm down," Julie whispered to herself and took a long breath. "Let me think. What do I know when it comes to vampires? Damon Salvatore?"

She shook her head. This was not the time for Damon but to think what Sam Winchester would do! Salt! But all the salt that she could afford from her room was the salted potato chips...

She looked around her dorm, wondering if it was time to change the room's decor by decorating it with garlic and salt. Where was her rosary? She quickly went to her cupboard and started to rummage through her things when she heard the window creak.

Picking up the rosary, Julie turned around while raising her hand in front of her.

Roman had already climbed into her dorm and had locked the window. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at her, and she stared back at him.

"Do you really think that will work on a vampire?" Roman questioned, his eyes unwaveringly looking at her.

"I didn't study about vampires when I got admitted into Veteris," replied Julie, dropping her hand that had been holding the rosary.

Roman eyes were still red, and it looked as if it didn't care, but Julie had come to learn it to be otherwise. His fangs had disappeared. Apart from his eyes, he looked like a human. His skin wasn't as pale as one would expect from a vampire.

"A-are you dead?" Julie asked him, her heart beating out of fear. It was one among the many things that were right now running in her mind after seeing his name on one of the headstones in the cemetery.

Roman placed both his hands on either side of him on the bed, supporting his body. Seconds felt like minutes, as he didn't answer right away. He responded, "Something like that. What were you doing in the cemetery?" his eyes subtly narrowed at her.

"The Corvin led me towards the road that was outside Veteris. I thought I could talk to it but it disappeared from my sight and I lost my way," replied Julie. At the same time, she tried to understand that the world she had been living in wasn't as simple as she had thought it to be. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked him.

"I planned to tell you later. I didn't consider that you would be finding it through the graves and meeting one of the vampire students," stated Roman. Pushing himself, he got up from the bed. Julie softly gulped when he made his way towards her, and he came to stand in front of her. "Do you want me to leave? We can talk later if you want time to process," his lazy red eyes watched her.

Julie shook her head.

Now that she knew there were people outside her dorm, who could suck her blood and leave her body cold, she didn't want to be alone. And if there was one person she trusted, it was Roman.

He took a step closer to her, his hand reaching for the rosary that she continued to hold. Taking it away from her, he placed it back in the cupboard.

"How is it possible?" whispered Julie, her eyebrows knitted in worry.

"I believe you aren't asking about the rosary," said Roman, closing the cupboard door. "It has been this way for quite some time now. Ask me anything you want to know and I will answer it."

"Vampires have been living here for years?" asked Julie, her mind bringing out one question after another.

"Vampire students enter and leave the university, to step into the outside world. Just like the humans do," explained Roman. He carefully slipped his hand into hers and said, "Come sit. This is what Veteris has thrived for, to run the place with vampires and humans, without the knowledge of humans."

"So… how old are you then?" questioned Julie, walking towards the bed, and she sat down with him.

"A century old," replied Roman and Julie gulped down. That was not even an average lifespan of a human being, thought Julie in her mind.

Julie tried to wrap her head over it, nodding her head in silence. Remembering the boy she had met on the restricted side of the forest, she asked, "What happened to that boy?"

"He is taking some rest," deadpanned Roman. His lips twisted in distaste, and he said, "I could let him free, but if word was out that you had stepped into the cemetery, it might cause some serious damage, so this is the best damage control for now. I don't want to have any loose ends when it comes to you. There's something that you need to know."

"Are you something more than a vampire?" Julie asked, worry in her eyes, not wanting to hear another twist that vampires ate people apart from drinking their blood.

Roman said, "It's about you."

"Me?" asked Julie, a little anxious.

"There are some vampires who can compel humans. Making them do things, even though the humans don't want to. Sometimes for the vampire's benefit, and sometimes for the humans' sanity," Roman started to explain to her, having her full attention on him. "For a vampire to be able to compel, they need to practice. Very few are able to master it soon. It is why most of the vampires who are in freshman and Sophomore year in Veteris can't do it. Evans tried to compel you the night you had been caught in the forest by him."

Julie started to panic at the thought that the counsellor had compelled her without her knowledge.

But Roman eased her thought by saying, "You cannot be compelled."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Every human can be compelled, unless they have a substance called Silverwater in their body. SilverWater is a plant, which is harmful to the vampires. I don't have the answers for why you can't be compelled, it possibly has something to do with your lineage. Vampires have an iron rule," Roman gave a pause to make Julie followed every word that left his lips. "If a human cannot be compelled, then the human is killed."

The little blood and colour that was left on Julie's face drained.

"Isn't that a little too extreme?" asked Julie, fear trickling down her spine, and she didn't know what to think of her current situation.

Roman shook his head. The expression on his face remained the same, "It's a common practice, a practice that is taught in the class." Wait, vampire students had different subjects?! Julie asked in her mind. "Vampires have tried to hide their existence, not revealing who or what they are to the humans for many years now."

Julie continued to digest what Roman said, trying to make sense of things.

"I don't think it's as bad as you think," said Julie, her voice just above a whisper.

"There are humans who hunt and kill vampires, Winters. Back in time, there were humans who hunted down even the witches. If you aren't one of them, they will either stake your heart or burn you alive. Your father is a hunter," Roman dropped another piece of information, and Julie's mouth parted in shock.

Her father had killed her mother without mercy, leaving her cold on the ground. Her hands that were on her knees clenched into fists.

"It's a lot of information to take in," confessed Julie, staring at the wall in front of her. "I wonder… if the Corvin has sensed that I am going to be in trouble. If it wants me to leave Veteris, and stay away from here," because of the way it had pointed its hand, but only that creature knew what it was doing.

Roman's eyes hardened when he heard her words. It was something that even he had considered in the past until he realized he couldn't let Julie go. He asked her,

"Do you want to leave?"

Silence filled the room, and Julie shook her head, "If I leave Veteris, I have my father waiting for me. I think it's better that I stay here." She turned to look at Roman and said, "And you are here too."

On hearing Julie's words, a small smile appeared on Roman's lips. He was glad to hear that she wasn't scared and packing her clothes to run away from here in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep.

Though Roman doubted Julie would successfully run away when her name was attached with trouble.

"Is this the reason why you are so smart? Because you have been repeating the same years here?" asked Julie, her eyes turning brighter with curiosity in them. She received a glare from him, and Julie said, "No?"

"None of the students who are vampires have repeated their years, unless they failed their classes," responded Roman, and she raised her eyebrows. Julie frowned hearing this, more questions appearing in her mind.

"But you guys don't grow old and are immortal. Aren't you?"

"We vampires do grow old, but at the same time we are immortal," he answered her burning curiosity. "Once a vampire crosses the age of thirty, their age stops randomly, ceasing time in their life. It leaves some of them to look young, and some old. There are only a few cases where people stop growing old before thirty."

How interesting, thought Julie to herself.

Julie then asked, "The names on the headstone and the years on some, why are most of the headstones there having the same year of death?"

"It was the night and year when the massacre took place in the town years ago. The vision that you saw in the abandoned building was of that night," he revealed the truth to Julie.

So all the graves that she had come across, they were attacked by vampires?

"Wait, you said your family was killed-"

"By vampires. They were rogue vampires, people who hadn't been turned and guided well. There are some vampires, who follow rules, some who don't and some in between.These vampires had come to hunt the town," remarked Roman, his eyes turned hollow as if his emotions turned cold at the memory of it.

If his family was attacked by vampires, it meant Roman wasn't originally a vampire and was once a human, thought Julie to herself.

Julie asked him, "Were there too many vampires who came to drink blood from the entire town?"

"They didn't drink blood from everyone. Their intention was solely to wipe the town, to cause as much damage as they could, while turning some humans into vampires. Some couldn't handle the transformation process and died," explained Roman. "Long ago, the people who lived in this town believed that this was the finest town as it mostly consisted of wealthy families. While the other families who lived here were more than the average ones. But they failed to see that one of the vampire's had come to live in the town. It was Castiel Marudas. Uncle of Maximus Marudas."

Roman's thoughts drifted to the past that he had often recollected and relived, and every time he did it, it caused him lesser pain until there was nothing to feel.

He began the original story of Veteris that Julie had been curious to know about since the very beginning, "It was the year eighteen eighty-seven. There were more buildings in the town, houses that weren't too far away from the mansions and the manor that belonged to the Lords. You can't see them now because most of them were burnt down in fire…"

Year 1887

A young boy, who was around the age of fifteen, walked on one side of the road. He was carrying a bag in his hand that consisted of books that he had borrowed earlier that week to read and was going to return it. His eyes were as black as his hair, his expression holding utmost seriousness for a boy of his age.

"Rome!" The young boy turned his gaze in the direction of where another young boy stood. The boy was none other than Maximus, who walked up to where Roman stood. "Are you going to Olivia's house?"

"Mr. Trosney said he was going to visit the next today, to bring equipment that he needs for his work. He said I could accompany him," replied Roman, and Maximus nodded his head. "We'll be leaving in fifteen minutes."

"I see. My uncle who lives in  Heartharbor has arrived in town and we have been busy with family time. He's my father's brother," explained young Maximus.

"I will see you later then," responded Roman so that he wouldn't keep Mr. Trosney waiting.

Maximus nodded his head, "Okay."

When Roman reached Trosney's house, he walked through the door and stepped in front of the door, inside where Mr. Trosney was working.

"Oh, you are here, Roman. Can you hand me the scalpel that's in the third drawer on the right side of the desks?" asked Mr. Trosney and Roman noticed his assistants weren't in the room yet.

"Where is everyone?" questioned Rome. Making his way inside, he pulled the drawer.

"Patrick's mother has fallen ill and the other two will be here in an hour. I wanted to check if there was any venom in the woman's tissue that I could find, but so far there's been no discovery of it," stated Mr. Trosney, taking hold of the scalpel that Roman handed him. "The magistrate wants to get a quick result, and is worried that everyone will need to move from here."

"Why?"

"He thinks the whole of water supply in the town has been contaminated and soon it is going to spread into an infectious disease," replied Mr. Trosney. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and started to work.

Roman walked around the dead body that was placed on the examining table. Unflinching, he pushed the woman's hair away from her neck and noticed the two dots.

"So you believe what I said, that it might be an animal."

"You are right, it can be one of the options," answered Mr. Trosney. "I just need to find out the cause of it. Give me a moment, why don't you go and tell Jared to get the carriage to the front. I will be out soon."

Before Roman could step out of the room, the magistrate of the town appeared at the door, along with two men who were taller than him.

"Mr. Altman, what a surprise!" exclaimed Mr. Trosney on seeing the magistrate and the two men.

The other two men appeared to be in their early forties, wearing crisp looking suits, and by their appearance, it was apparent that they belonged to a wealthy household.

"My apologies for intruding this early in the morning, Tobin. We came here to have a quick look at the woman's body to see how things were going," said the magistrate. Then his eyes fell on Roman, and a scowl appeared on his face. "What is the Moltenore's boy doing here near the body, step out, boy. This isn't a place to play," the man tried to shoo the young boy away from the room.

But Roman stood right there, only staring at him as if the magistrate hadn't spoken a word to him.

"Roman is actually learning things. I have planned to turn him into my future apprentice," said Mr. Trosney with a smile.

"Isn't he too young to learn things like these," questioned one out of the two men, who had come with the magistrate. Roman's eyes shifted to look at the man, who appeared to hold an intimidating aura around him. There was a smile on his face while he stared at Roman. "I am surprised to see that the smell of death in this room, he hasn't thrown up yet."

"He is a brave and intelligent boy. He has finished reading almost every book that is related to the medicine on my shelf," Mr. Trosney praised Roman.

"I think I know you," said the other man, who had platinum blonde hair, "My nephew has mentioned your name. Roman Moltenore, was it?"

Roman, in return, questioned, "You must be Castiel Marudas."

"Is that how you introduced yourself, boy?" questioned the magistrate with a frown on his face. He clicked his tongue before saying, "Even though you have been brought up by a reputed family, you seem to have a hard time to let go of that behaviour from where you come."

"There's nothing to introduce when he already knows my name. No one is dumb here," deadpanned Roman, and his words irked the magistrate.

"Tobin, you shouldn't have a misbehaving boy like himself in here. I will not allow him to work here in the future, if you allow it, I will take away the license of you being a physician," declared the magistrate. He then turned to look at Roman and said, "Just because Lord Moltenore's family has accepted you, don't think we won't keep an eye on-"

The man with black hair and brown eyes, raised his hand for the magistrate to stop talking. He said, "There's no need to quarrel when we have come here to take a look at the progress of the real cause of the woman's death."

The magistrate glared at Roman, and Mr. Trosney looked at Roman and said, "Why don't you take a step outside the room?" and Roman left the room.

After fifteen minutes, the man who had earlier stopped the magistrate from speaking more stepped outside and asked, "Do you like to read a lot? I have some books at my place if you want to read." Hearing no response from Roman, the man then questioned, "Trosney speaks very highly of you. Did you find anything strange with the body?"

"They think it's because of water contamination," answered Roman.

"And what do you think it is?"

"Bite."

Hearing this, the man's intelligent eyes looked at the young boy, "And what makes you think that?"

"Intuition," said Roman, not giving away the details, as he was trying to figure it out by himself. "What do you think caused her death?" He returned the question to the person.

The man smiled before he said, "I think it might be a bite too. I have seen some deaths like that, but it is often hard to crack cases such as these. It is better to let the woman be in peace, than keep her body out in the open." When the man tried to place his hand on Roman's shoulder, Roman stepped forward and walked away from there.

When Mr. Trosney stepped outside his workplace, he looked around, his eyes searching for Roman. "Huh? Where did he go?"

Once Mr. Trosney and the magistrate left in their respective carriages, Castiel, who stood there with the other man, said, "I have compelled both of them to have them stop working on this case. The case will close in two days."

"Good, it would be a drag to have unnecessary open cases when we already know why the woman died," answered the other man, looking in the direction where the boy had disappeared. "What happened to turning your family?"

"I will speak to my brother after tomorrow's soiree," replied Castiel with a peaceful looking smile on his face.

"And what will you do if he doesn't agree?"

"Then he will become an example of why one needs to be turned," replied Castiel and both the men left the front of Mr. Trosney's house.

The next day, Roman had left his manor to get some things that he had been working on building after eyeing Ms. Trosney's bicycle. When he reached the market to get grease, the woman who stood at the front stepped away from him to maintain a distance.

The woman then said, "Looks like the Moltenore are treating you just like they should be, by making you work and showing you your place."

Roman turned to look at the woman, his black eyes staring at her. He said, "Did you say something?"

"Instead of sending your butler or a maid to fetch the things, you have come here yourself to fetch it. Your condition is pitiful, why don't you go back to your mother instead of shaming Moltenore's reputation?" asked the woman, trying to be polite with her words.

"I think you are more pitiful than me, to come here all by yourself at this age," deadpanned Roman, not mincing his words even a little. The woman's face turned red, and half the people around laughed while some took the woman's side.

One of the people in the market said, "It saddens me to see that people like the Moltenore's family have to go through with it. Especially Lady Petronille. The Lord sowed and the woman reaps, tch."

"The boy has grown and he shows not one bit of respect to any of the elders," the woman was quick with her words, who had earlier taunted Roman.

Roman bought the grease, paying the shopkeeper the money, and before he could leave, he said, "I didn't know you were waiting to gain my respect. I rather respect the wall than a person like you." Saying this, he walked while the woman continued to scold him.

Unbothered, Roman continued to walk when he felt someone's presence behind him, and he stopped. Turning around, he noticed it was the same man who he had met at the physician's house.

"You seem to be having an eventful day," said the man, a smile on his lips which didn't affect.. "I heard about your little history."

When Roman started to walk, the man also started to walk next to him, "I thought you were here to solve the mystery case of the dead woman. I didn't know people had free time on their hands."

"You know how gossip runs around the town and eventually you know everyone's business," said the man, his eyes shining in mirth.

"Congratulations on learning something useless," remarked Roman, with a neutral tone. But this only caught the man's attention even more, and he chuckled.

The man then said, "I didn't get to introduce myself yesterday. I am Azazel Donovan."