By Roshwitha Buduri, Staff Writer
This March, River Hill students had the opportunity to donate their blood for a better cause during the school day, finding their experiences alarming in different magnitudes with reports that the Blood Drive’s sponsors may have had a role to play in unnerving situations at the event.
The Blood Drive this year was in partnership with the Red Cross club, encouraging those who could to donate theirs to better causes. For this year, more students signed up than ever to save lives. A common misconception about blood donation is that all blood donated can be used to save other lives.
“They can still use your plasma. The plasma’s the water in your blood. It’s got the proteins, antibodies, and other stuff,” says Senior Vincent Mai, who signed up to donate his blood on the 12th. “It can be useful in all kinds of emergency services.”
As a volunteer EMT, he saw cases of extreme blood loss while assisting EMTs on scene. He states, “Blood’s the life support. You’re dead without it. It’s one of the main causes of deaths during an accident.”
Junior Anna Carlise signed up for the same purpose. She wanted to get three hours for NHS while serving a purpose with a greater community impact. During the process, she noticed something more particular.
“There were a lot more papers to sign this time around. I heard last year it was just three papers—parental permission, the usual—but this time it was six.” When asked if she read the pages in detail, she stated that her parents signed it regardless. She showed the three extra papers. Listed were several companies that showed no connection to any hospitals in the area. Examples such as Sanguine Consumption Corporation and Pires & Vamp Co. were businesses that had no online traces. Carlise says she had no problem with the extra companies. “They must be sponsors. Non-profits are hard to run without them.”
Seniors Marissa Smith and Penny Kent went to donate their blood on the 12th, only to be turned away at the entrance, even after doing all the paperwork beforehand.
“It was insane. I showed them all the papers, and they still turned me away.” Smith states. “One of the blood-drawing people sniffed me right before though. They said something about it being awful. Like, it, hello?”
Kent expresses a similar experience, “I was told I smelled too sour. I didn’t know what that meant. I…just left.”
Junior Ivan Croft explored further into the companies listed on the last pages, tracing their headquarters to a building in the woods near the Clarks Glen housing community on Guilford Road. Croft, treasurer of the Cybernet Trackers, a county-wide organization dedicated to solving unidentifiable internet mysteries, says the lack of information in the blood donation sparked the flame to investigate further.
“My friend told me there were these weird organizations listed. I thought, ‘what if it was some secret thing no one’s found yet’, and yeah it is. Other people who went to donate got sniffed or something, and the staff there were really pale.”
Senior Rina Dualeh got her blood drawn at the blood drive. She says, “There were times where I could see their mask fall off—seriously sharp teeth. I tried to get out as fast as I could.”
In order to figure out more in this case, Croft met up with an old friend from middle school, an investigator in the paranormal. “Whoever was collecting the blood…they weren’t normal.” He concluded. “These secret companies might be making the process more difficult for people to get the blood they need, especially turning away good donors.”
From the other side of Howard County, Senior Eeshan Sundarapalli prides himself on hunting down the supernatural and the obscure. He believes that the world would be a better place without them.
“These guys are a special case. You wouldn’t wanna mess with them,” He says.
Superhuman strength, speed, and teleportation as just a few of their abilities. The only weakness? The sun. They didn’t have a name registered yet, but Sundarapalli has been working with the Supernatural Awareness club at his school to support a bestiary. He states, “It’s important that you’ve got the information to deal with these guys in your hands. It’s always good to be prepared. I’ve gotten in scuffles with some of them at times.”
As of now, the investigation has stalled since Sundarapalli came out of woods located near Guilford Road. Croft and others attempted to contact him, but failed. After reaching out, Sundarapalli arranged for a follow-up nearing midnight, a time when most of the journalists were unavailable.
“He’s never like this,” Croft notes. “I’m just hoping he’ll return to his senses soon.”