Post by SAM on Jan 22, 2010 21:07:24 GMT -5
"We are a final hope in these dreaded people's lives. Away from the prying eyes of a forsaken, corrupted society, safe from the vultures who call themselves a government, we are an established foundation of protection for those who would be labeled as 'abnormal'. This world is going downhill faster than a snow sled in a Northern winter, and it is a natural born instinct to crave an escape route from this Hell that we call our earth. We 'abnormal' people have no chance unless we are together, or perhaps isolated from the rest of the world; it is futile to ask for peace alongside 'normal' human beings, and so we are driven here, to perhaps the last safe place in the world for those of our kind."-- Madame Athalia Marie Beaumont
The year is 2005, and Hadley Institute for the Arts, located off the coast of the Northeastern United States, is one of the most popular academies for the literal, visual, performing, and musical arts. They hide their secrets well.
Within these elegant walls is a secret that the government has sought after for ages and the public knows virtually nothing about. Ever since its founding in 1912 by musician John William Hadley, the institute has been a place for teenagers to learn about and progress in their fields of art, living culturally among a diverse group of people and seeking one of the best artistic educations in the Western Hemisphere. Quite a few of them don't know what's in store for them on the other side of the tall double doors, though -- vampires and werewolves and Gypsies, oh my!
For years, the government has been lingering on the topic of vampires and werewolves, seeking a final, solid answer to their existence. Hadley Institute just happens to have that answer. Though this secret is kept from the public, rumours circle the word -- fliers, the Internet, even old books from the age it was founded, and naturally, people become interested in such things. That's how most of the vampires and werewolves find solitude and stop running from the dangerous public: they find rumours of Hadley playing host to people like them. The same applies to Gypsies, who find a safe place to practice their culture, though persecution is more familiar to them than that of werewolves and vampires.
The school year progresses like any academy: students attend classes, attend holiday events, make friendships and enemies, fall in love. Occasionally, you hear a howl from the woods, though it's a wonder how wolves got onto Hadley Island. Your best friend might be terribly afraid of sunlight, and you wonder why he keeps asking for red Kool-Aid. That girl in your English class might suddenly curse you for making fun of her exotic hair-do.
It's just any ordinary school... Right?