*Max's POV*

To say the ride to the school was awkward is the understatement of the century even a funeral was nosier than the whole thing, believe me I know by experience that they are

The girl, whose name now I knew was Hope thanks to Alaric the headmaster of the boarding school, was sitting in the backseat reading a letter left by those two guys that ran past me in the forest while I just sat in the passenger seat just looking at the passing cars trying to not look at Alaric who was clearly pissed

I silently thanked god when we arrived at the school and Jesus Christ I knew the place was big but somehow it was bigger than what I imagined, even under the light of the moon it was genuinely amazing

The second the car stopped Hope grabbed her stuff and instantly walked inside the school leaving me and Alaric behind as he just sighed and grabbed what little stuff he had on him, "follow me please"

As we entered a man and a woman approached us, "Ric, thank God you are back" the black man was clearly around Alaric's age and if I had to guess I would say he was a teacher, mainly due to the clothes he was wearing, a dark gray v-neck sweater with a white shirt underneath it

"What happened, Everything alright?" The man and woman looked at each other before the man spoke again "after the game Lizzie, she...-" his pause was cut off by the headmaster "what Dorian? Is she okay?"

"She is okay but after the game she kinda started a brawl with the rival team, "well I didn't expect that turn of events and neither did Alaric as his jaw dropped, "she did what!? How the hell did she start a brawl!?"

"She punched one of the students right in the face after they disrespected Josie and it went overboard from there" the woman finally spoke Alaric just rubbed his eyes and sighed as I just stood there admiring the place, it was nice and cozy I can see why people send their children here, "I know we on this whole brawl stuff but can I ask. Who is that?" Dorian asked the headmaster as the three were now looking at me while I checked the place out

"That is what I was gonna figure out but now-" he was cut off by the woman as she put a hand on his shoulder, "we can still do that while you check on the girls if you want to join us later you can" she turned to me and walked forward, "please follow me we can talk on his office"

I followed her and Dorian to the office leaving Alaric behind as he went to check on his daughters, the office was big for being an office with a couple bookshelves and a big window that allowed the moonlight illuminate the place, "take a seat" the woman said while sitting on the desk to which I obliged

"My name is Emma I'm the school's guilding counselor but before I start asking you about you I know. How did you know about this place?" I just stared at her there was something soothing about her something that made me trust her immediately so I didn't see any reason to why lie, "my grandpa told me about it and showed me where it was"

"You grandfather? And how did he knew about it?" Now it was Dorian doing the questions, his voice wasn't as trust inducing as the woman but not bad enough to send any red alert, "He tracked it down for me, he was a hunter"

As I said this Dorian whole demeanor changed, his inner calm was definitely out of the picture now but the Emma stayed almost the same with her just looking at the man besides her and nodding to him to which Dorian left the room for which I assume was to look for Alaric

Emma directed her gaze again at me and we just sat there in silence until I decided to break it, "if it makes it better he died so you don't have to worry not that he was gonna do anything while he was alive he wasn't your traditional hunter"

"Really? What type of hunter was he" she questioned her tone was different more concerned than anything else, "the type which only stopped those who went too far and put both of our worlds and the people in it in danger, like a murdering egotistical vampire, a psychotic werewolf or even a out of bounds hunter"

"He hunted other hunters?" I just nodded as I understood her confusion. A hunter hunting other hunters, how is that possible?, "There is always that hunter that goes too far or whose mind was too affected why the hunt itself that they become a danger to even humans" she just looked at me with actual interest and surprise in what I was saying, "there are way more of those cases that you can imagine, believe me I have been seeing them since I was little"

Before I could keep informing her of the crazy people that walk around in our world Alaric and Dorian walked through the doors of the office, Alaric carefully walked to his desk and sat down on his chair looking at me every second

The silence in the room was loud as I just looked at the three adults all of them in front of me right now, "sooo is anyone going to say something or are we just going to stay here staring at each other in silence? because I'm really o-" i was cut off by Alaric, "Why did you come here?"

"Because i think in this place I can finally have the type of life i been searching for good while now" I just said calmly, clearly these people didn't trust me now but better to tell them the truth than later down the route pay the price for lying so gonna have to deal with it for now

"And what type of life is that may I ask?" He asked, "the one that is worthy of calling itself a life" the three adults just stared at me Emma and Dorian looked more sympathetic about everything while Alaric looked like a dog on guard mode ready to strike at the minimum false move

I just stared right at him trying to make him believe what I was saying and assure him I mean no harm to anyone in this place, "look since I was nothing but a little kid I have been running, surviving, searching for a place to call home but never finding it, meeting people and then losing some of them and with them a part of myself too but I'm tired of it"

Alaric's demeanor changed a little bit like he put some of his guard down but not entirely not yet at least, I was heading in the right direction of things I just had to tell all the truth to why I wanted, no, Needed to be in this place

"My grandpa gave me the location of this place before he died because he gave his life to save mine, he gave me a chance to finally have that life I have been dreaming of since I was just 8 years old and you and the people in this place may be the only ones able to give it to me" I took a deep breath as I got a little agitated with the whole trauma dump I just exposed to this people, "and also I saw the look in your eyes when you saw that dragon, you couldn't believe it and let me tell you if that surprised you then you aren't ready for what it's out there hiding, things that are similarly or even worst than what you saw today believe me, I can help you with it, tell you about the stuff I have seen"

Concern took over the three adults as they looked at each other and then back at me, finally Alaric stood up and so did I. He looked at me like he was trying to detect any ounce of doubt in my words or face that revealed everything that I said as nothing but a big fat lie but when he found nothing he just sighed and directed his look to the ground and his shoes

"Okay for now you can stay" a wide smile appeared on my face while Emma and Dorian smirked a little like they were happy for me, "but you will stay in the cellar until we decide if you are a danger to this place after we keep this discussion tomorrow it's pretty late already" I just excitedly nodded at him, "Emma will take you to the cellar" 

Emma started to walk out of the room pointing me to follow her which I did not before thanking Alaric, we went through a hall until we reached a staircase leading down when we reached the bottom I was surprised by the look of the place, stone walls with no windows with the only thing in it being jail bars right in the middle of the room and behind it nothing but a bed with a old mattress

"When he said cellar I expected a little bed with a nice bathroom near it and maybe some garbage around not a prison cell" I stated to Emma who just stared at the jail bars which made me believe she didn't like it either, "I'm sorry we usually use it for werewolves if they go rampant or if a student hurts someone deliberately" she looked at me and saw the doubt in my face putting a hand on my back and rubbing it in an attempt to put those doubts away and calm me down 

"Don't worry I'm sure he will let you stay here permanently and when he does just know the people in this place will always be here for you as they will become your family" I smiled at the thought of that and nodded finally entering the cell and laying on the bed

"This is it I can feel it, I can finally have that life they took, I can finally have a home" i thought to myself while staring at the ceiling before I drafted to sleep

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*Third person POV*

Alaric walked to the school's gate looking at it before grabbing the bars and shaking them, "trying to make a run for it?" Dorian asked the headmaster as he walked and stood besides him to which he just chuckles "yeah, I just noticed this gate wasn't locking the other day"

"Worried about people getting out" Alaric shook his head turning around to face Dorian, "I'm worried about might wanna get in, we've gotten cozy here, careless" he leaned against the gate and looked at the school which was being  illuminated by a few lights on the outside, "I've forgotten the world is full of nasty surprises, I don't know the story behind that knife, but whatever it is" he just sighs at the memory of the recent events that afternoon which was literally just a couple of hours ago

"I saw something today I never thought I'd ever see in this lifetime and what that kid said, that there are even worse things out there hiding, it scared me even more" Dorian stared at him he was scared too, this morning he woke up ready to just teach some kids and spend the rest of the day organizing the library not to be revealed the fact that dragons exist

"You know I opened this school to protect these kids, protect my daughters" he turned around to look at the world behind the gate, the only thing keeping them and the school separated from the rest of the world, "how am I supposed to protect them from stuff that is not supposed to exist?"