Chapter 17
Episode 17
The sterile white walls of the girls' school seemed to press in on me, a stark contrast to the wild, windswept beauty of Bar Harbor and the quiet, shadowed streets of Saint Andrews. Each day was a carefully orchestrated performance of normalcy, a brittle facade I’d honed over years of necessity. My parents, adrift in their own storms of disappointment and resentment, had deposited me here with the same detached finality they might have abandoned a piece of luggage. I was a problem to be managed, a burden to be placed somewhere out of sight, out of mind.
The girls themselves were a kaleidoscope of adolescent anxieties and whispered secrets. Some were kind, their youthful innocence a balm to my bruised spirit. Others, however, saw only the new girl, the one with the haunted eyes and the silence that clung to her like a shroud. They would probe, their questions laced with a curiosity that often felt like an invasion. They’d ask about my family, my past, their eyes sharp, searching for weaknesses, for something to latch onto.
But I had learned to build walls, higher and thicker than any fortress Vlad had ever commanded. I offered polite smiles, vague answers, and a studied indifference that kept them at bay. Inside, though, the echo of Vlad’s presence was a constant, a quiet hum beneath the surface of my manufactured calm. He was the unseen guardian, the silent observer who assured me, without words, that I was not truly alone. He was the crimson petal unfurling in the darkest corners of my mind, a reminder of a strength that ran deeper than any pain.
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