The story begins with the Wishing Stream. A place normally avoided by those who fear the unknown, it is a magical river near the small town of Neigedale. The stream runs through the dark and dense woods right where the town comes to an end. Unlike the surrounding shadowy woods, the land closest the stream has its own eerie mystical glow. The trees choose not to grow too close to the water, as if, like the townspeople, they don’t trust its magic. Instead, these bizarre flowers grow in that space. The flowers can grow to about five feet tall with thick stems that have no offshoots and grow straight up. The flowers themselves have exactly seven petals that come in pink, blue, purple or yellow. They are referred to as “flashlight flowers” because the centre of the flower lights up at night. The most unsettling detail about this stream is the mysterious creatures people have noticed. Some live underwater, some on land, but none will show their face, only their glowing green eyes as they watch people pass by. There have also been rumours that the water is magic and can grant wishes, but only for certain people. Layne’s parents had been wishing for a child when they found her as a baby drifting down the stream on a little raft, sitting in a basket wrapped in a blanket.

The main setting of the story is the vampire boarding school, Batwing High. It was not always a high school, it was originally the castle of the vampire royalty. It was transformed into a school in 1872 by Sir Forest Batwing, who is still the school principal to this day. The building is very tall and it’s made from a very dark stone. Since the building is hundreds of years old, the stones are cracked in various places and there are vines growing in that space. Some parts of the school are newer, and they’re made from a shinier, white stone, for example the students’ dorms or the classrooms, more and more were added to the building over the years as the number of students increased. In January, the start of the vampire school year, each student must take a test their level of strength. The levels go from 1 to 4, classes and dorms are assigned according to level. The school has a few secret passages that the students and most of the teachers don’t know exist. One of them is in the library, and the entrance is hidden behind a bookshelf. These passages are far from the only secret the school is hiding. Being a student at Batwing High is not always easy, the classes are tough, the teachers are very strict, and not everyone is who they say they are.