Chapter 5-Unanswered Questions

Karin sat in Mr. Nerima's classroom, typing away like mad to get her last lesson completed. It had been harder to block out English since they had been taking a vocabulary quiz. She rushed through it quickly but still hadn't been able to complete much. She had begun by continuing with her arrogant plan of writing about the wars but stopped after a few words. Since she was unable to refrain from typing "Humans lost" in place of all her confident words, she moved to the details on how the vampyre had lived. "They would move like shadows in the night through society. They were our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, no one could have foreseen what evil lay in such innocent disguises." That passage stuck out in her mind and she had committed her last lesson to the few words within it.

Around Karin, her classmates enjoyed their free-time like most carefree teenagers. Many were chatting about their new pods or a novel trend in synthesizing while others sat silently in their Energa-Desks. Beside her, a friend had been describing his past evening but she had long since tuned him out. She barely noticed as Mr. Nerima took his place at the front of the room. Even the dead silence of her classmates, caused by the teacher’s commanding presence, didn’t clue her in that the time to stop had arrived. She was engrossed.

"Miss a’Fisher." Her teacher’s voice interrupted her thoughts and she quickly churned out some final words and closed the V-Screen.

"Yes Mr. Nerima?" she replied quickly.

"I’m glad to see we finally obtained your much desired attention," he said with a smile. "Did we happen to tear it from the previous night’s lessons."

"Yes," she replied truthfully. "I was just spiffying things up a bit." "Half of the truth is better than none," she thought. Her father would probably say in reply, "Only half the truth is still a lie."

"Well then," he said. "Let me see it." She removed the disc slowly and walked to the front of the class. Karin could feel every eye in the room watching her silent procession. She wondered if they thought she would suddenly break the disc or run from the classroom in rebellion. It wouldn’t have been the first time that either event occurred. She had earned a reputation from her adamant advocacy of ridding the school of vampyric studies. Fate proved to have an ironic sense of humor.

Today would not be an ordinary day. There would be no outbursts. No strong words. No rebellion. She ended up handing the disc to Nerima with an uncommon air of servility. He didn’t seem to know what to make of it either. His bushy gray-black eyebrows were furrowed at her with an intense look of trying to figure out what was going on. As he set the disk in his V-Screen he seemed to shrug and ran a hand back through his black hair, which was shot back from the temples with twin streaks of gray. He was probably older than her father but looked much younger. Karin suspected that the war had ravaged her father more than it had Mr. Nerima. The only area that betrayed his age was his goatee, which was completely gray and even had a few white strands within it.

"Well," he said after a moment of silence. "Let’s see what you chose to write about in your optional lessons. Do I hear any bets on the Wars of Annihilation?" Karin felt her cheeks grow slightly red as the class laughed behind her.

"You’d gotta be stupid to bet against that," said one boy who sat near the back.

"Let’s test that theory," said Mr. Nerima and he shuffled the screen until it reached the final lessons. He sat reading them a moment and then gave Karin a curious look. "It seems," he said. "That we all would have lost." The class gave a mixture of groans and over-done gasps in reply. "You may take your seat Karin," he told the embarrassed girl. She realized it was the first time he had ever called her by her first name. She didn’t waste any time dwelling on the thought and quickly returned to her seat.

"What DID you write about?" asked Zach, the friend that had been talking to her earlier.

She looked at him and shrugged in reply. "Just the Time of Concealment," she replied.

He grinned and replied, "Well, you sure shocked Nerima, he’s probably going to mark this day on a calendar."

Karin shrugged and nodded, then turned her attention back to the front of the class. Mr. Nerima had begun a lecture on the passage she had written about. She doubted it was simply a coincidence.

"What do you think we can learn from this?" he asked the class, attempting to look at everyone though his eyes kept returning to her area of the classroom. "Anyone?" Karin glanced around then raised her hand. "Karin?" he asked.

"Well," she began. "I think its a warning that we can never know when we are truly safe. They could still be around and we would be as blind to it as we were before.." She cut herself off quickly, not wanting to betray too much in her reply.

Mr. Nerima nodded slowly then quickly moved on to another topic. Karin found herself listening more carefully than she had in the past and actually asked a question, "How humane were the vampyre?"

He paused to think on that question. "Well," he said. "That isn’t exactly something that was easily documented or studied." She was surprised to see that he didn’t say they were devoid of humanity, utter beasts. That seemed like something a veteran would reply without thought.

"Well," she said. "What do you think?"

"I think its a touchy area," he said. "I fought the vampyre because they were a danger to myself and those I loved. They were the predator. We were the prey. Humans are also predators to many other creatures. Does this make us monsters? No. I guess the distinction lies in just how much the change, the embrace, the moonlight kiss, whatever you wish to call it, affects them. Do they simply become humans with hunger for blood? If this were true, then I would have to think they would lose much humanity. I don’t think I could live with killing others as food but it is hard for us to judge. I imagine it also varies with each vampyre though. I know that this is a very incomplete answer but does it satisfy your curiousity?"

She shook her head. "Honestly, no," Karin replied. "But I understand why you can’t answer."

"Then we will move on," he said and turned to quickly write a diagram of vampyre society. Karin had a feeling he hadn’t liked or appreciated her question. She wasn’t even sure why she had brought it up. It obviously had to do with the encounter but what the exact parallel was, she couldn’t be sure.

As the class came to a close, Karin quickly engaged in a conversation with Zach. She hoped that if she looked busy as she walked out, Mr. Nerima would let her go by. Instead, he interrupted them, apologizing though she could tell he was not sorry.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" she replied.

"Well, your opinions have seemed to do a complete 180 degree change in the passage of one night. I suppose it would be optimistic to think that something in the text provided sudden clarity?"

"Yeah, clarity, it was the text and just some thought I’ve been doing lately."

"Well, something about that answer isn’t complete but I’m not going to inquire any further, for now. I know we’ve never really gotten along that well Karin but don’t think it’s because I dislike you at all. I merely get frustrated at having everything I say thrown back in my face. Just remember to be safe and to always consider the safety of others as well."

"I’ll do that," she replied and quickly exited the classroom. She didn’t think she could be there without wanting to confess everything. Deep down, a part of her did want to tell all about what had happened but another part was telling her no. The two feelings were practically ripping her apart. She wanted to get as quickly to her next class as possible but outside, Zach and Min were both waiting for her. Min had a class nearby but had taken Vampyre Lore the year before, so they hadn’t been able to get all their classes together. Both of them bombarded her with questions. Zach had obviously described Karin’s change to Min before she had arrived. She could do nothing but give half-truths and white lies in the replace of unadulterated honesty. By the time they reached Art, she felt like strangling them both.