Chapter 21: Testing the myth

We part ways, and I walk into the laboratory for Fundamentals of the Supernatural World. Professor Florentino is sitting at the desk in front of the room, leaning back in his chair with his feet on the desk. He doesn't look up, so I sneak towards a table near the back where I can stay away from his line of fire. In a few minutes, Teo sits in the stool next to me.

"You look like hell," she tells me while placing her notebook and pencil on the table. She hangs her bag off the side of the table where there is a hook. I'm not really sure what we do in the lab period for this class, so I just have a fresh mug of tea in front of me.

"Oh good, then I look how I feel. I'm spent. Completely beat. Which, I suppose, means the plan is working." I respond.

"What plan?" she asks.

"The plan to keep me so tired that I don't lose my temper," I say while taking a sip of my tea.

"Oh - that," she says with a snort. "I heard how you were making out with Javier and Sadie got jealous and attacked you." The tea I was sipping on comes right back up into my nose, causing me to choke and sputter in surprise.

When I catch my breath, I shout. 'That is NOT what happened."

Out of nowhere, something wet slaps me in the forehead.

"No one wants to hear your inconsequential girl talk, so if you can't keep it down then you can promptly leave." I hear from the front of the classroom. My fingers travel to my forehead and pull off what looks like a wet paper towel off of my face. Teo's eyes are wide, and the rest of the class turns to me to see what I'll do.

My gaze moves to Professor Florentino, who's still sitting with his feet on his desk without a care in the world. My fist clenches around the paper towel, causing water to run down my fingers and onto the table below me. I don't even know where he could have gotten this from. A boiling fury swelling inside of me is quickly stopped short when I see the calculating look on his face. He wants me to get angry, probably so he can punish me even worse later.

My jaw grinds and Florentino seems amused when I throw the wet paper towel to the ground in front of my table. He's such an asshole.

I hear a breath release to the side of me, so I look back to Teo to see a worried expression disappearing from her face.

"What I was trying to say before," I tell her at a much lower volume. "Is that Javier came out of nowhere and started kissing me. I tried to push him off of me and make him stop, but he wasn't budging."

"What!" Teo shrieks. I dart a nervous glance to the Professor, but he is reading a paper in front of him and shrugs when he feels my stare. Apparently it only matters when I am loud, and Teo gets a free pass. Ass. Hole.

"Then I lost control," I say. Teo looks like she is fuming, almost as angry as I was which surprises me.

"I hope you made him bleed," she tells me seriously, which makes me laugh.

"Damn, Teo. Didn't know you had a violent side."

"Only when it's well deserved," she says with a flick of her blond and blue hair over her shoulder.

"Yeah, well Sadie jumped in and I handed her ass to her too. Couldn't help it," I continue.

"What a jerk. I'm glad you're not with him anymore."

I sigh, "Me too."

"Well, I'll make sure to correct the rumor mill then. Sounds like those gossips didn't know what the hell they were talking about."

"Those gossips, huh?" I ask her with a mocking smile. "Pretty sure you're one of those gossips, Teo."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she tells me with an answering smile. I roll my eyes at her and she laughs at me.

Professor Florentino claps, so our conversation is cut short when the students' attention lands on him.

"Instructions for today," he drops a stack of papers onto his desk and points at it.

"Microscopes are there," he adds, pointing to a closet in the back.

"Samples are labeled and in the fridge. Grab a partner, get to work and don't bother me for the next few hours." He says, proving he's the worst teacher I have ever had.

"I'll get the instructions, you get the microscope," Teo asserts, and I follow her lead. Each microscope in the closet looked the same and in great condition, so I grab the one closest to me and walk back to the table. I plug it in and turn the lens until it's on the smallest zoom. It's always a best practice to start farther out before moving to a higher powered lens - something my dad instilled in me at an early age while I watched him work at home.

Teo is reading over the instructions and is nodding her head at what she sees.

"How does it look?" I ask her, curious what we are doing today.

She hands me a second copy of the instructions while she gives me an overview.

"We're going to run tests on vampire blood."

"W-what...What was that?"

"Vampire blood," she answers and my eyes widen. I didn't even think about if vampires were real.

"Vampires? Oh my god! Vampires exist?"

She reaches over and pats me on the head. "Oh, you're so cute. You're like an infant, discovering the world around her for the first time."

A loud laugh bursts out of me as I slap away her hand.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this point. Well, I think I have a better understanding of what we do in the lab period for this class now. Freaky science experiments."

"Close enough," Teo says.

I read over the summary for today's lab:

- 'Today we will be testing the properties of vampire blood and analyze its strengths and weaknesses through a series of laboratory tests. A vampire bite contains venom, which infects the host's brain, causing the host to desire and rely on blood as a food source. Since the infection rate is high, populations of vampire colonies continue to increase, escalating the need to understand the capabilities of this supernatural species. You will complete the following tests: light sensitivity and range of tolerance, presence of antibodies, and assess the myth behind a vampire's weakness to holy water.'

With better understanding of the tests we are running today, I get ready to geek out on science. Watching my dad run experiments and my mom learning everything she could from him about plants means that I am familiar with this type of setting, comfortable even. I put gloves and a mask on before retrieving the sample of vampire blood from the fridge. The blood sample is in a vial, so I place it on the test tube holder on the table top. Teo has started to prepare a slide to place under the microscope, so I take an eye dropper and put a small amount of the blood on the slide for viewing.

We each take a turn looking through the microscope as we aim a UV flashlight at the sample. The blood starts to bubble and boil as if heat is being directly applied to it, and the effects are worse the more light is applied to it, even having lethal effects if enough light is used. So similar to how werewolves have a sensitivity to silver, if the right conditions are applied, it can kill it.

Well, that's nothing too groundbreaking. Vampires are creatures of the night for a good reason, and if needed, there is a way to defend yourself against one.

The next experiment explored a vampire's strength against human diseases and viruses. We looked at a couple of maladies, including a strain of coronavirus that had plagued human populations several years ago, and I learned that the infection that creates vampires is naturally resilient to human afflictions. Perhaps it's due to their affinity to drink human blood, resulting in them consuming natural antibodies for these viruses and diseases.

Nonetheless, they are clearly a strong supernatural species. "Why don't they use vampire blood to help cure human diseases?" I ask Teo.

"It's a rule amongst supernatural species to make sure that humans don't know of our existence. Our Midnight Council doesn't allow us to let humans know about werewolves, and vampires have a similar system. Doctors will ask too many questions, and it could lead to a disaster. Besides, the medical field is pretty advanced at this point in time - humans don't really need our help, and honestly, they probably wouldn't appreciate it either. Could you imagine if humans learned they were an inferior species? "

"I only found out about werewolves recently, and learned that other supernaturals exist even more recently, and I'm not bothered. I'm overwhelmed - but, I don't have an inferiority complex," I tell her.

"Yeah, only because you ARE a werewolf now. If you were still human when you found this out, you'd probably feel a lot different. The human world is segregated into countries, each that operate to various sets of rules. And each country would respond differently to the knowledge that supernaturals exist - it would be complete chaos. Some would clash with each other, and others would join together to overwhelm us. " she argues convincingly.

"Myths exist though. We have stories, books and movies about werewolves, vampires and other creatures," I question.

"Right, but they're just that - myths. They exist with reasonable doubt, and humans who start to believe in these stories are fringe groups, often cast out and called insane."

We continued with our tests and what was of particular interest was exploring the validity behind the claim that holy water harms vampires. It turns out that when a priest had blessed water which was thrown on a vampire, the water was stored in a stone urn. The stone urn happened to be made of sedimentary rock, which naturally contains sulfur.

The sulfur had seeped into the water, and when splashed onto the skin of the vampire, it was absorbed into the bloodstream a few seconds later. The sulfur reacted to the vampire's blood, resulting in sulfuric acid, a corrosive substance! It was just a happy coincidence that the holy water had contained sulfur, giving life to this notorious myth.

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