Cilantro

I arrived at my new school way too early. The sun hadn’t even fully set, which meant I had at least an hour before classes started. 

My head felt heavy, like it was stuffed with cotton. That’s what two hours of sleep would do to you. I needed to stay awake, so I started walking, letting my feet carry me aimlessly through the empty halls.

The stiff collar of my uniform chafed against my neck. The jacket was too broad in the shoulders, the pants a little too long - just enough to make every step feel clumsy. Apparently, they’d "run out" of the girls' uniform in my size. Right. Because a prestigious institution like Nebou somehow couldn’t accommodate a girl over 5’7”.

The whole situation still felt surreal. A month ago, I was kicked out of my old school for falling asleep in class too many times. The next day, these phenomena called "Cracks" started appearing everywhere - literal tears in reality that connected our world to others. The one near my house opened up to this place.

I stopped at a window, watching the orange sky fade to purple. Getting into Nebou was pure luck. After every other school rejected me, the headmaster here actually gave me a chance. Of course, it came with... conditions. Not that I had much of a choice.

I continued wandering down the hallway, peering into each classroom I passed. The school had some interesting stuff going on - one room had what looked like a cauldron bubbling away, and another had dried herbs hanging from the ceiling. The scent of lavender and chamomile drifted out. Maybe I could finally perfect that sleep remedy I'd been working on here.

My footsteps echoed off the walls as I walked. Wait... was that a second set of footsteps? I stopped. The other steps stopped too. Great, now my brain was playing tricks on me.

I kept walking, trying to ignore how the hair on the back of my neck stood up. The footsteps started again. I sped up. They sped up too.

Maybe I need some fresh air. The small garden I had spotted earlier when entering the school's front gates seemed like a good escape.

I pushed open a set of glass doors and stepped outside. The cool night air helped clear my head a bit, though my eyes still felt heavy from lack of sleep. When I got to the garden, something made my exhausted brain snap to attention.

"Is that... luminescent valerian?" I muttered, crouching down to examine the silvery plant, its roots glowing faintly beneath the soil. Valerian was already known for its sleep-inducing properties, but I’d never seen a variety like this before. My fingers itched to take samples, to study their effects.

Then I spotted something ordinary among all the bizarre specimens - a familiar cilantro plant. Finally, something I actually recognized. I reached out to pluck a leaf for closer examination.

"Don't pick that!"

I jerked my hand back so fast I nearly fell over. The voice had come from... somewhere? Everywhere? Nowhere? I spun around, searching for its source.

The garden was empty.

I reached for the cilantro again, determined not to let some disembodied voice boss me around. My fingers were inches from the leaves when-

"DON'T!" the voice snapped again, more insistent this time.

My eye twitched. Sleep deprivation and mysterious voices were not a good combination for my already thin patience.

"Yeah, well, watch me you bastard," I muttered, and yanked up a whole sprig of cilantro. Just to be extra petty, I waved it around above my head like I was conducting some deranged herbal orchestra.

"NO! Put that down RIGHT NOW! Before-"

"Before what?" I challenged, spinning in a slow circle as I tried to pinpoint where the voice was coming from. That's when I noticed something odd - my shadow wasn't moving quite right. In fact, it seemed to be... squirming?

I stopped spinning and stared down at my feet. My shadow was definitely moving independently of me, and unless I was hallucinating from lack of sleep (always possible), it appeared to be having some sort of fit.

Was the voice hiding in my shadow? Well, only one way to find out.

I pulled my arm back and punched my own shadow as hard as I could.

"OW!"

The shadow exploded upward, coalescing into a girl who stumbled backward clutching her cheek. I blinked hard, trying to process what I was seeing. She had long black hair with striking red highlights, but what really caught my attention were the wolf ears poking out from her head - actual, genuine wolf ears that twitched as she regained her balance.

A dark bruise was already forming on her cheek where I'd punched her. I felt a twinge of guilt, but quickly suppressed it. After all, she had been the one hiding in my shadow.

"What was that for?!" she demanded, yellow eyes flashing as she rubbed her cheek.

"What did you expect me to do?"

"Not punch me! Who just goes around punching shadows?"

"Why were you following me anyway?"

"I was bored," she shrugged, her wolf ears twitching in a way that was trying oh so hard to be cute. "You're the only one here this early. Thought it'd be fun to tail you for a bit." She grinned, showing off slightly pointed canines. "Get it? Tail?" She wiggled her actual tail for emphasis.

Great. A stalker with bad puns. "Right. Well, I'm leaving." I turned to go.

"Wait!" she called out. "I wanted to ask you something!"

"Not interested." I started walking away, but she moved to block my path.

"Come on, just one quick-" She took a step toward me, and without thinking, I thrust the cilantro sprig in her direction like a tiny green sword.

The wolf girl leaped backward with a yelp, covering her nose. "Ugh! Get that thing away from me!"

I blinked, looking between her and the harmless herb in my hand. "What, this?" I waved it slightly, and she actually hissed at me.

"Stop that!" She backed away, her tail now tucked between her legs.

"You're telling me you can turn into shadows, but you're afraid of an herb?"

"I'm not afraid!" she protested as she kept a wary eye on my herbal weapon. "It's just... really strong, okay? Werewolf nose and all that."

"Uh-huh." I twirled the cilantro between my fingers, watching her track its movement like a cat with a laser pointer. "So if I do this..." I took a step forward.

She scrambled backward, tripped over her own feet, and fell flat on her behind. "That's fighting dirty!"

"Says the person who was stalking me through my own shadow."

"Fine, you win this round," she huffed, picking herself up and brushing dirt off her uniform. Her tail swished in agitation. "Just answer me one thing, and I'll leave you alone."

"What?"

Her ears perked forward with interest. "Are you really a vampire?"

I felt a headache coming on, and it wasn't just from the lack of sleep. Of course that would be what she wanted to know. I'd barely made it through the front gates, and already someone was questioning my cover story.

"Because you don't smell like one," she continued, tapping her nose. "You smell human. Like, completely and totally human."

"I'm leaving," I cut her off, turning away.

This was going to be a very, very long four years.