Holden managed to decide on trousers as Izzy spoke, saying nothing to interrupt her, and was rolling on his socks as she finished. Without looking over at her, he replied, "I don't think you're lying, but there is something I need you to understand. I've been through too much to believe you out of hand. Honestly, at this point I had just about given up, as my hopes have led to disappointment every time I've seen one of these so-called experts, without fail. It's very difficult for me to accept that I [i]happened [/i]to slip down the stairs into you, who [i]happened [/i]to have been bitten by a vampire, and [i]happened [/i]to then meet an expert who cured you, who also [i]happened [/i]to solve the same issue for our class president." Looking back at Izzy with a rather tired expression, he simply finished by saying, "No offense to you personally."

After he finished dressing, the two departed back to the abandoned school. The roads were completely unlit by this time of night, as the outskirts the school resided in lacked any sort of streetlamps. Holden didn't complain about having to ride on the back of Izzy's bike again, but did express concerns about the possibility of her hitting an unseen obstacle and flinging them both to the ground, thus soiling his clean clothes and purified body. Despite this, though, the two made it to the school without difficulty, and were met by Riley just inside of the entrance. He had cleaned himself as well, and changed into the first set of clothes Izzy had ever seen him in besides his usual getup. They seemed to be some sort of priestly vestments; a black, floor-length robe covered mostly by a white smock over top of it, a black collar, and a long, black scarf of some kind that hung almost to the ground from his neck. The outfit aside, it was staggering to see him clean-shaven, and with his hair slicked and combed back. He nearly looked like an entirely different person.

"Good, you made it. Have we been purified?" Holden nodded. "No colognes or deodorants?" Holden shook his head. "Good. Good intuition. Just follow me upstairs and we can begin."