Chapter 2| Two Lives, One Silence
Jace Hale didn't like mornings.
The sun was too loud, the halls too bright, and the people way too alive for his mood. He moved through the crowd like a shadow, slipping between noise and backpacks without drawing attention. His hoodie was up. Earbuds in. Music off.
He didn't need music. Just a reason for people to leave him alone.
School was the same blur as always. Smells of cheap deodorant and pencil shavings. Laughter that echoed off the lockers. Fist bumps. Eye-rolls. Teachers with dead eyes.
Jace wasn't part of any of it. He just drifted.
At least until he heard the voice he couldn't ignore.
"You're late again, Dracula."
Kimberly.
She slid up beside him with a grin that could melt cement. Her box braids bounced with every step, and her eyes sparkled like she had a secret. Maybe she did. She always acted like she knew something he didn't.
"You don't talk,..don't text,..don't smile..,Are you even alive in there?" she asked, poking him in the ribs as they walked down the hallway together.
"Barely," Jace muttered, glancing at her from under his hood.
Kim gave him a look. "You say that like it's a flex."
He didn't reply. He never did. And somehow, that never stopped her.
They reached class and slid into their usual seats at the back. Kim dumped her bag on the desk with a dramatic sigh. "You know, for a guy who looks like a main character, you're incredibly boring."
Jace smirked faintly.
Kim noticed and looked pleased with herself.
He didn't know when they became best friends. It just happened. Like gravity. She showed up one day, decided he was hers, and he never found the strength to push her away.
She was loud where he was quiet. Fire where he was ice.
And for some reason, it worked.
The bell rang. The teacher started talking. Jace didn't hear a word of it. He just kept feeling like something was… off.
Something outside the window. Something in the air.
It felt like something was watching.
**
On the other side of the city, Detective Wayne Hale stood in front of the evidence board, arms folded, eyes bloodshot.
Eight victims.
One night.
All killed in their homes. No forced entry, no signs of struggle, no camera footage, no prints either.
And one thing in common.
Blood loss.
Severe.
Wayne's jaw tightened. He stared at the photos. At the hollow eyes. At the stillness captured in the aftermath. He felt it again—the same cold from all those years ago. That same impossible truth scratching at the edges of his mind.
No. Not again.
The captain stepped in, holding a cup of black coffee.
"You look like hell."
"I've seen it," Wayne replied flatly, taking the cup. "This is worse."
"You still think this is one guy?"
Wayne didn't answer.
"Come on, man. Eight victims in one night? It's a gang. Gotta be. Cartel or something."
"No," Wayne said. "Gangs leave trails. Cartels leave warnings. This... doesn't care who sees it. Or maybe it knows no one will believe it."
He walked to the board and tapped a photo with a red marker.
"Victim #3. Her kid was in the next room. Slept through the whole thing."
"Could've been drugged."
"She wasn't. They tested her. She just… slept. Deep. Like something made her."
The captain raised a brow. "Like what? Magic?"
Wayne didn't respond. Not because he didn't want to.
But because part of him remembered something. A flash. A face. Blood. Fangs.
No. That was grief. That was trauma.
Still, it was getting harder to pretend.
**
Lunch was chaos. Always was. Kids yelling, phones out, food flying. Jace sat with his tray untouched. Kim was mid-story about a science teacher who accidentally set off the fire alarm with a microwave burrito.
He wasn't listening.
Someone was watching him again.
He looked across the cafeteria, just to make sure he wasn't crazy, then, he locked eyes with a guy he didn't recognize. Pale. Still. Too still. The guy didn't blink. Didn't move. He just stared at Jace like he knew him. Like he was waiting.
Jace frowned. Something about the guy's face felt wrong. Like it didn't belong in this room.
Kim waved a hand in front of his eyes.
"Earth to Jace."
He blinked. "Yeah?"
"You good? You look like you just saw a ghost."
He glanced back.
The guy was gone.
**
After school, Jace lingered by the back gate. Kim had taken off early for some club meeting, and he didn't feel like going home yet. His dad would either be at work or locked in his office, pretending not to be haunted.
The air was colder now. Sky a little dimmer than it should've been, then someone stepped out from behind the fence.
It was the guy from the cafeteria,this time, he spoke.
"You don't know what you are, do you?"
Jace froze. "What?"
The guy stepped closer. His eyes were wrong. Too dark. Too deep. Like staring into a well with no bottom.
"But you will," he said, smiling in a way that felt like a threat.
Then he turned and walked off, vanishing into the alley.
Jace stood there for a long time, pulse thumping in his ears.
Weird,...