Missing Person

As Hayden headed out for his lecture around a week later he noticed a poster on the display board on his way to the class. It had the face of Nick Horton. The werewolf student he had tackled the other day. Wondering who could be looking for the werewolf lad, he headed for his class.

After his third period while he was headed for his office for some paper grading he noticed a blonde woman carrying some of the posters. Wondering how she might be related to him, Hayden stopped her. "Excuse me, Miss''? He called out.

"Professor Rushmore. I'm Clarice Morgan." She introduced herself in a hurry.

"Are you the one who has been putting on those posters?" In a calm soothing manner, he asked.

"Yes, I've been." She nodded. "Did you know him?" She asked the professor.

"Yes, he is in my class. Year 2". Declared Hayden. "His papers are due, I have been wondering about that. I mentioned to him about the deadline and yet he isn't here. I didn't expect him to be missing however." Hayden mumbled.

"Yeah...he is. I contacted everyone who could have possibly seen him…" Clarice rambled on.

"You seem heavily distressed by his disappearance. Were you two close? Related perhaps?" Hayden asked. He had to know if there were other werewolves lurking around.

"What?! Ewww no! He was my boyfriend" Clarice defended himself immediately.

"My apologies, for assuming wrong." Hayden blurted immediately. "Can I borrow one of the flyers? I'll put it on the bulletin board near my office, in case someone had seen him." He added.

"Of course"! Clarice's face lit up with the prospect. "Thank you so much professor." She handed Hayden two flyers in case one of them got ruined somehow.

While her next class was in a few minutes she decided to risk getting late in order to put up some more flyers. Once she was done covering all the bulletin boards in the north wing, Clarice ran to her class. She would be perfectly on time if she hadn't collided with another student who was also running for his classes at the end of the corridor.

Apart from hitting her bottom due to the fall, she was also baffled due to all the scattered flyers. "I am so sorry." The guy she bumped into started to apologize immediately. Without any further ado he started to pick up those papers and handed them to Clarice in a bunch. "I am so sorry". He repeated.

"Here"! Instead of saying thank you, she simply stuffed one of the flyers in his hand and ran away. The guy, who was late as well, stood there in awe staring at the flier in her hand. The heading read…

"MISSING PERSON"

… Along with a well defined photograph of the gentleman. It seemed familiar to him, but right now he didn't have much time to waste so he made a run as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After his lunch Hayden headed for his afternoon session as only one class was left. Most of his colleagues preferred morning classes and returning home early, but since he lived on campus he didn't mind taking the afternoon ones.

While guaranteed that this would be like any other day, series of classes and nighttime hunting, he was surprised to see a familiar face in the class. A face that he was dreading to see since a week ago when they met each other. Nathaniel Sinclair. The snobbish vampire.

But why was he in class? Hayden wondered. Of course he couldn't call him out in front of the entire crowd without giving away what his night job was so he pretended to not notice him in the crowd and progressed with the lecture.

Unlike his usual he refrained from asking any questions in order to not draw any unnecessary attention that would prompt Nathaniel to come up and reveal himself. It wasn't like Hayden was terrified of Nathaniel or something, but even after a week of private research he could find nothing on him.

There wasn't even any mention of any henchmen being immune to the effects of the stake, but the Vampire King was supposedly immune to it. Maybe he taught the trick to his henchmen? Hayden had wondered. But alas, nothing was there that could aid him in killing Nathaniel.

After the class was dismissed, each and every student exited the class one by one. All were gone, except one remained, seated on the same seat staring at Hayden with dead eyes. "Aren't you happy to see me"? Nathaniel smirked.

"Am I smiling"? Hayden raised an eyebrow. "You are not registered and thus not allowed in the classroom." he declared.

"I am sure you can make an exception, Professor Rushmore. After all, Rushmore university of sciences is under your name." Nathaniel shrugged.

"How did you find me?" Hayden asked out loud.

"It's really not that hard." Nathaniel smirked. "But, on my way here I found some flyers… it is remarkable what you have done. I mean… I just thought you were some righteous hunter… but you are evil." he chuckled.

"What do you want"? Hayden snapped, unable to tolerate Nathaniel anymore.

"I want to know you." Nathaniel declared.

"And why is that"? Hayden asked.

"Cause you intrigued me." Nathaniel smirked. "You are a killer who can't be killed. I can't just let you out of my sight now, can I"? Nathaniel smirked.

"Then do as you like. But if you get too close, I will kill you." Hayden snapped.

"Can you"? Nathaniel scoffed. "Can you really manage to kill me"? He mocked.

"I can lock you up and torture you until I figure out how to." Hayden shrugged. "You must have figured out how ruthless I am, I won't bat a single eyelash for doing that." He shrugged and walked out of the empty classroom. Hayden was sure that would be it, but when he heard footsteps following him, he couldn't help but groan.