Spike + Vampire: Highschool of Monsters (Freshman)

When Spike left the nurse's office, he noticed that it was already time for lunch. So, he headed to the cafeteria. As he walked there, he noticed that the other students and teachers he passed all stared at him with varying looks. Some looked at him with amazement at his abnormally high arc level. Others looked at him with fear for what he might do with such power. But most of the girls were all looking at him with nothing but love in their eyes. He heard some of them sighing as he went. He could even hear them whispering about him.

"Did you hear? That's the guy with the arc level of two-thousand!"

"No one's ever gotten an arc level that high."

"He's so cute!"

"I'd like his arc level to overwhelm mine, if you know what I mean."

Spike couldn't help but smile at what the female half of the student body were saying about him. If he ever looked at his reflection in the mirror, he could see himself as a good specimen of masculinity. He walked to the cafeteria with a bit more of a spring to his step.

As he entered the cafeteria, he saw it buzzing with activity. All these different friend groups and school clubs tended to gravitate towards each other. The cacophony of voices all taking to each other at the same time was almost deafening.

When Spike was making his way to the line to get food, it seemed like he had casted a spell on the others as he passed. When they saw him, they all stopped talking and stared after him. The attention was really making him uncomfortable.

"Shit! Everyone's staring at me! Okay, stay calm, Spike. You don't want to draw anymore attention to yourself than you already have.", he thought to himself.

He calmly walked to the back of the lunch line. He could feel the eyes of the other students on his back, but he didn't make a fuss about it. Eventually, the others delved back into their conversations. But these conversations were more than likely all about him, now.

As the line moved forward, the guy in front of him looked behind him to see Spike standing there. His eyes widened to the size of quarters.

"Oh! You can go in front of me, man!", he said nervously. Spike was so confused by this guy's reaction to simply seeing him.

"Is this what it means to have such a high arc level? The others won't want to mess with you? If that will keep me safe, then I'd better try to be tough, but not too tough.", he thought.

"Thanks, man.", he said simply while moving in front of the guy. The others in the line in front of him saw this and offered that he move to the front of the line.

It was like Spike became an alpha male in the course of a few minutes. He was suddenly in the front of the lunch line, getting food for himself. Fortunately for him, the cafeteria served food that humans would eat. However, they didn't serve standard American food. They actually had an enormous variety of foods from around the world. Spike saw that there was egg fried rice and sushi from Asia, piri piri chicken from Africa, chicken hearts from Brazil, Shepard's pie from England. The cafeteria at this school seemed to have it all. But there were some foods there that were rather... off-putting. There were some trays filled with raw meat or organs from various animals.

Spike decided to ignore the fact that some of the students ate raw flesh and got himself his lunch. He got himself a cheeseburger, mac-and-cheese, a salad, and a chocolate milk for his lunch. The lunch ladies all gave him the same looks as the girls he walked by earlier.

Once he got his lunch, he went to look for a place t sit. Somewhere out of the way and private. As he looked around, he could see that the other tables were full up with students talking to one another. But there was one table in the back of the cafeteria that caught his eye.

It was way in the back with only a single student sitting there. It was Rumble, the wendigo Spike met this morning! He was sitting all alone at the table, eating what looked like a raw sheep's leg. Swallowing his rising vomit, Spike made his way to the table.

Rumble noticed Spike approaching him and positioned his body in a way that looked like he was ready to bolt if Spike made any sudden movements. As Spike set his tray of food on the table, he had to assure Rumble that he wasn't there to hurt him.

"It's okay, man. I'm not gonna punch your skull in or anything.", Spike said whilst holding up his hands.

Rumble stared at Spike for a long time and finally seemed to relax. "Okay. Sorry about the apprehension. It's just that when I heard that you had such a high arc level, it kind of chilled me to my bones."

"Hey, it's fine. I guess having a high arc level is enough to make everyone be on edge around me, huh?"

"Yeah. Though, I never heard of a human having such a high arc level, before."

That sentence immediately caught Spike's attention. "A human? What are you talking about?", he asked trying to keep his cool.

Rumble leaned in closer to Spike and whispered, "I know that you're a human.".

Spike's heart started to race. "What now? Is he going to attack and eat me in front of the entire cafeteria?".

However, Spike's fears were put to rest when he saw Rumble giving him a friendly smile.

"Dude, it's okay. The Headmaster told me about you before you got here. Don't worry, I'm not going to eat you.".

"You're not?", Spike asked nervously.

"No. In fact, I've never eaten a human before."

Spike was intrigued. "Never?"

"Never. I've never even wanted to eat a human. Actually, it's because of that that I'm kind of the black sheep of the family."

Spike's curiosity surged at hearing this. "Wait, are you trying to say that your family doesn't respect you for not wanting to eat humans?"

"Yeah. My clan prides itself on hunting and eating humans. But me, I've always thought that humans were interesting. Even fun to be around."

Now Spike was afraid for his life again. "Your family hunts humans?".

"Yeah.", he responded. "We're wendigos. Our species is particularly famous for eating humans. But I didn't feel the drive to eat humans like my brother. In fact, I even had a secret friend who was a human. He even knew that I was a wendigo, but he still wanted to be friends with me. That is, until my family found out about our friendship.".

Spike's fear turned into morbid curiosity. "Rumble... what happened to your friend?", Spike asked slowly.

Rumble could only lower his head and look away with a haunted look in his eyes.

Flashback- Six Years Ago

A nine year old Rumble was running through the snow-covered trees to get to his friend Luke's house. Luke Hendricks was such a nice guy. Being part of a family that wanted to live out in the country and run a beef ranch, he lived close to where Rumble and his family made their territory.

Rumble wondered why his man-eater family hadn't attacked the Hendricks's ranch, yet. Perhaps it had something to do with the warding charms the neighboring Native Americans on the nearby reservation put around the property. Those warding charms were meant to keep out creatures and spirits with evil intentions. The native people there had long told stories of wendigos.

But since Rumble refused to eat humans, he could run by the charms with no problems. Rumble was in his true form and running through the forest with the wind at his back to push him forward. Wendigos were some of the fastest monsters on the planet, achieving speeds so great, it looked like they could teleport.

Once he reached the back fence of Luke's ranch, he changed into his human form and hopped the fence. He went to the front door and knocked on it. The door was opened by a very friendly-looking boy about the same age as Rumble.

"Hey, Rumble! Thanks for coming over! Did you bring those new Batman comics I told you about?", Luke asked his best friend.

"Did I bring them? Of course, I did!", Rumble said excitedly while pulling out the comic from his backpack.

"Awesome! Let's read them already!", Luke exclaimed.

The two boys ran into the living room where Luke's parents were enjoying themselves watching "Wheel of Fortune".

"Hello, Mister and Misses Hendricks.", Rumble greeted the two adults.

"And hello to you, too, Rumble.", Mrs. Hendricks said.

"Great to have you around, sport.", Mr. Hendricks said.

But before they could start reading about the best DC hero in existence, Rumble suddenly caught a familiar scent on his nose. His eyes widened with fear when he recognized that scent.

Luke noticed his wendigo friend's reaction and spoke softly. "What's wrong? Everything okay?".

Rumble could only whisper. "You have to hide!".

He spoke louder. "You all have to hide now!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's wrong, Rumble? Why do we need to hide?", Mrs. Hendricks asked.

Suddenly, as if on cue, the power to the house was shut off. The whole house was plunged into darkness. The Hendricks family started to panic.

"What's going on?"

"What's happening?"

Luke grabbed Rumble's hand with both of his own and held on tightly. "Rumble, what's going on?!", he whispered to him in a panic.

Rumble looked at Luke and said, "Don't worry. I'll do everything I can to keep you safe."

Then, right before the human family's very eyes, Rumble changed into his true form. That of a wendigo. Once he finished, he took a battle stance. Luke's parents were understandably terrified of what their son's friend just turned into.

"Luke, what is that?!", both parents asked their son in unison.

"It's okay! He's still my friend. I promise I'll tell you everything later. Right now, Rumble's trying to protect us.", Luke said.

Rumble noticed that the air suddenly got colder. Frost was starting to form on the windows, floor, walls, and ceiling. Rumble focused all of his senses on finding out where his family might come out. As he looked around, a voice called out.

"What are you doing, Rumble? Playing with food, maybe?", a deep voice called out from the darkness.

In front of Rumble's face, three wendigos seemed to rise out of the frost before taking on their true forms. The all stood in front of Rumble and the humans he seeks to protect.

"No, I'm protecting my friends.", Rumble replied. His mother walked up and smacked Rumble across the face! Rumble was shocked by the display of violence this woman had just inflicted upon her own son.

"You foolish boy! Humans and monsters can never be friends! Centuries of war and carnage have proven that!", his mother wailed at the poor Rumble.

"Boy, I could barely tolerate you not eating humans as it is. But actually being friends with one? That's out of the question!", the father said.

"Wait a minute. How did you even get in here? Those warding charms should've kept you out.", Rumble asked.

Thunderlane smiled. "Turns out that one of the trees holding up the charms was struck by lightning last week. That left a gap for us to come through.", he responded.

Rumble was shocked at this news. But he shook off the shock and snarled at his family. "I won't let you hurt my friend or his family!", he declared.

Father simply scoffed. "Well then, I suppose we'll have to make you into a proper wendigo by force.", he stated flatly.

Before Rumble could react, his parents ran behind him. The next thing he heard was ear-piercing screams coming from behind him. He turned around to see that Father had started tearing out Mr. Hendricks's throat and Mother had completely ripped Mrs. Hendricks in half! Luke screamed at the deaths of his parents and tried to run to fight off the monsters who killed them.

He was stopped by Rumble, who had grabbed him and was holding back. Luke and Rumble could only watch as Rumble's parents murdered and ate Luke's.

"Proud of yourself, brother?", Thunderlane asked from behind him.

Rumble was suddenly punched in the back of the head with great force. He let go of Luke and tumbled to the ground. Rumble looked up to see his older brother grab Luke by the neck and held him up to face him. Thunderlane looked at his little brother with disgust in his eyes.

"This is what we're supposed to do with humans!", the older brother explained before opening his fang-filled mouth.

"NO! NO! NO! Please don't do this!", he begged.

But it was too late. Thunderlane sank his teeth deep into the struggling boy's neck, spurting arterial blood everywhere! Luke shrieked in agony as Rumble's monstrous brother tore into his neck. Luke's screams quickly devolved into gargles as he was choking on his own blood. The last thing Luke said before death was one small sentence.

"I hate you, Rumble."

That simple sentence stung deeper than anyone else could ever know. Thunderlane then tore off Luke's left arm and walked over to the stunned Rumble. He held the arm out to him.

"Eat.". That was all he said.

Before Rumble could refuse, however, his mother and father grabbed him and held him down. Rumble didn't have the strength to struggle. Thunderlane walked over to Rumble and tried to force the arm into Rumble's mouth!

Rumble refused with all his might! He wouldn't do this! He wouldn't eat his best friend! As the family was trying to force the flesh further into Rumble's mouth, he made a silent promise.

"One day, I will get my revenge. I'll kill you all. I swear it.".

To Be Continued