Training

“Academic lessons!” Shadow shouted. All of us groaned. “What? All of you thought that you could be world class soldiers without knowing the basic facts about the world? From now on, the schedule will be exactly the same. Classroom lessons in the morning, magic sessions after lunch. After dinner is going to be physical classes. Now get your lazy asses to the class!”

We all set out at a steady jog to the class, Shadow close behind. I dropped back a little to talk to her.

“James told me you killed his uncle last night,” I said bluntly.

“I won’t deny it,” Shadow said.

“He also told me all about your operations within Dragonside, and how you relate to all of it.”

Shadow looked at me curiously. “You didn’t know?”

I rolled my eyes. “Why is everyone expecting me to know?”

Shadow scowled. “I don’t know. Maybe because you sold the stuff my company made.”

“Fine,” I said. “What I wanted to ask you was how you know how to do all of this stuff?”

“All of what stuff?” Shadow asked with an aloof air.

“Don’t screw with me,” I growled. “Assassinations, how to be an amazing crime lord, how to make a poison that only one person in the world reacts to.”

Shadow glared at me. “You think it’s my choice. I knew who James was, and I could have easily said no, but the person who wanted him dead was wealthy and influential. A lot of people he knew did a lot of their business through Dragonside. If I refused to kill the person because of who his nephew was, do you have any idea what would happen to my company? As for where I learnt it all, I cannot tell you.”

With that, Shadow picked up her pace and jogged to the front of the line, cutting off our conversation. I scowled. I realized that she had dealt with every type of person, so she could shield herself properly from the prying questions of people.

After a few more minutes of jogging, we reached the classroom. This place was surprisingly big for being underground. The class looked like something from a standard school, except Nick, who was most definitely not a person with a teaching degree, was standing in front.

I plopped into a desk next to Sally and James in the back.

Nick glowered at all of us. “Unlike a real class, because of the magic enhancements, there isn’t any advantage to sitting in a particular seat. Now onto the lesson.”

“Excuse me, Nick?” Janet said. “Aren’t we going to have first day slack or something?”

As much as I hated Janet, I prayed that Nick wouldn’t kill her for what she said.

“If you are a rookie on the battlefield, the enemy isn’t going to give you slack because you’re new. They’ll resort to whacking your head clean off your shoulders,” Nick said. “Listen up!” He said loudly. “I will teach even if only one person is learning. But if the time comes when you need to know something I was teaching, I will guarantee you that you’ll have a tough time finding it. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” we mumbled.

“Good,” Nick said. “Today’s lesson will be all on territories. Then Castor will do some stuff afterwards.” Nick pulled down a roll-out map from the top of the board. Part of it was red, the other part was blue, and small portions of it were yellow. There were also several small black dots on it.

“Several years ago, these landmasses were split up into seven continents. North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica.” Nick pointed each one out as he said it. “Now, the red represents the Zodiac Sphere, green is human territory, and yellow is the area where there is currently war. The dots are major cities. The city can either have a large population, be a weapons manufacturer, or have several training facilities. Since we got Africa, Asia, and part of Europe, the human population is extremely dense in many places.”

“Why does all of this matter?” Lily asked.

Shadow spoke up from a corner of the room she had been standing in. “It matters because all of you will have to know ground and territory well for what we’re preparing you to do.”

“I thought we were just going to be fighting in this war, nothing special,” James said. “That was what Dr. Furg told us.”

Nick and Shadow exchanged glances. Nick nodded slightly, and Shadow sighed.

“Here’s the real reason why you’re here,” Shadow said. “Almost everybody in this facility are the only people that use magic who fight for the humans. People who work in the army know how to counter magic, but they can’t use it. Because of this, we created this organization. What we do is we sneak into the Zodiac Sphere and wreak havoc without being killed or captured. You need magic to be able to get inside, which is why all of you are here. If the Sphere is busy waging war, then their leadership will collapse, and the humans inside the Sphere will revolt. There are too many of them. If the leaders of the Sphere decide to handle their internal conflicts, then we can make a stronger push and win the war. Got it?”

“So we’re like spies?” I said.

“Kind of,” Shadow said. “This is why it’s crucial that you memorize every little detail. One mistake can end up in our entire team dying.”

“Our?” A boy asked.

Shadow chuckled. “Nick and I are the same age as you, after all.”

I guess most people thought that they were way older than us, because the entire class sat in shocked silence.

“I don’t look that old,” Shadow said grumpily.

Nick cleared his throat. “Back to the lesson. Today, we’ll be learning all of the geographical features in the Zodiac Sphere. This body of water right here used to be called the Atlantic Ocean. The Zodiacs have total control over that.” Nick looked up. “Why are none of you taking notes?”

Sally cleared her throat after a moment. “We thought all of our training would be physical,” she said.

“Why would you idiots think that?” Nick growled. He waved his hand, and a notebook and a pen appeared on everyone’s desk. “Start writing.” Nick snapped.

I yawned and wished there was a window to stare out of. The rest of the class went by relatively quick. Nick droned on and on about mountains, lakes, valleys, population distribution, regions, and other stuff. Once we were dismissed, we all went to lunch, where Janet, Lily, and Alli were waiting at our table.

“What do they want?” I muttered.

Sally nudged me. “They want you, in their bed that is.” I nearly gagged at the thought.

“Let’s go sit at where they used to sit,” James said. “No one sits there now.”

After beginning to eat, the three girls waltzed over to our table.

“You came to eat with us!” Janet said happily, staring directly at me. Lily gave me a fake sweet smile.

“No,” I said. “It’s just that you took our seats.”

Janet’s smile drooped a little. “Oh,” she said. “Okay then.” She walked back to our table. I could’ve sworn that Alli was trying to not burst out into fits of giggles.

“Wow,” Sally said. “You really know how to shut a girl down.”

I squirmed uncomfortably. “I didn’t mean to.”

James laughed. “Then you are not smooth at all, my friend.” Sally and James both roared with laughter.

“Two minutes!” Shadow called from over the bannister. “Meet us in the training room.”

“That was fast,” James said, beginning to wolf down his lunch.

“Maybe what they want to do requires an empty stomach,” Sally suggested.

“Or maybe what they want us to do is easier to do on a full stomach, and they want to torment us,” I remarked darkly.

James swallowed his food. “I second Michael’s hypothesis,” he said. Sally rolled her eyes.

 

 

 

“Today we’ll be starting magic lessons,” Shadow said. “Normally, you should always do magic on a full stomach because it requires a lot of energy, but we’re getting you used to situations in which you have little to no energy left.”

James and I gave Sally an “I knew it” look. She rolled her eyes in response.

“Today will be basic stuff,” Shadow said. “First, everybody should join hands.” It took a second of mumbling and fumbling for that to happen. “Now close your eyes, when I saw to open them, open them.” I closed my eyes, and for a millisecond, I heard evil laughter, someone screaming and pleading. My head rang with the sounds of bullets, and I could sense the heat of fire. I opened my eyes, not being able to contain my curiosity, and dead bodies were strewn everywhere. Like I said, it only lasted a millisecond, and I squeezed my eyes shut as fast as I could, not wanting to see anymore. Almost immediately, Shadow told us to open them.

When I did, I nearly fainted. The world was awash in colors. I could even see colors through the wall into the next room. Every shade, every hue, plastered every surface. I turned to say something to James, then found he was covered in a lime green light.

James scowled at my slack jawed expression. “I bet you didn’t realize that you were blue,” he said. I looked down at my hands. Sure enough, they were covered in blue light. I jolted my hand up and down and realized that it was mist, not light. Sally was looking at her purple mist in awe. I glanced at Shadow and was shocked to discover that she had very little mist around her. It had two layers though, one was white, and the underpart was black. Nick was standing still in his silver mist.

“This is called your aura,” Shadow told us. “It’s made out of pure energy coming from yourself, although you can steal it from other people. You use your aura to perform magic. The more complex the spell is, the more magic you use. If you continuously use one spell, then the amount of aura it takes is less and less. Your aura is also called your life force, because if you use all of it, then you go out with a bang-literally. You blow up yourself and everything in a fifty foot radius.”

There was dead silence after Shadow ended on that happy note. I guess she realized it because she winced slightly.

“Are there any questions?” Nick asked. I realized that I had never heard him speak with emotion.

“Yeah,” I said suddenly as I realized that I didn’t understand something. “Why does your aura have two layers?” I asked Shadow.

“It’s not two layers,” Shadow said. “I’m covering it, so it’s smaller. It’s easier if you want to sneak around, so it’s harder for people to notice you.”

“So how big is your aura?” A boy asked. His name was Jake, and I didn’t like him. He was obnoxious, stuck-up, and thought her knew everything.

“I would rather not show you,” Shadow said.

“Why not?” Jake demanded. He was also very pushy and believed that he could get whatever he wanted.

Shadow smiled, but it was her scary smile. “Because I said so.” Jake shut up immediately.

“Alright,” Nick said. “The point of this lesson is to teach you guys how to be able to see into what we call the Cross World. It’s the plane of vision in which you can see your aura. Normally, people only see on the first plane. Your aura appears on the third plane unless you hide it very well. Shadow normally hides hers on the twelfth plane, and I hide mine on the ninth. The higher number of the plane you can see on, the more you see, but you use more and more energy as you go up. In order for you to finish this course, you need to be able to see onto the seventh plane at least.”

My vision suddenly returned to normal. I blinked. It was strangely disappointing to see the world without as much color.

“I let you guys see on the fifth plane,” Shadow said. “I expect you to get to the third plane by the end of the lesson. All you have to do is imagine what you think the Cross Worlds would look like. Since all of you have already seen onto the third plane, you can also try to imagine seeing people’s auras. Practice begins now.”

“We won’t be able to help you much with this. Magic is 97% mental, 1% spiritual, 1% magical, and 1% physical,” Nick said. “Keep that in mind.”

“So if we’re not smart, then we might not be able to use magic?” Alli asked.

“Yes,” Shadow said. She cocked her head and smiled sweetly. “Is that a problem?”

Alli turned bright red and muttered something before closing her eyes and concentrating fiercely. The rest of us all did the same.

I squeezed my eyes shut and imagined a world with red, flat ground that was blistering hot. The sky was a hue of red as well, and the air was acidic and incredibly hard to breathe in. I opened my eyes, and there was no color. I sighed and tried to imagine how I saw the world when Shadow brought us into the Cross World. I opened my eyes, and I saw a faint flicker of color.

“Easy,” Shadow said. She stopped right in front of me. “Don’t burn yourself out.”

“How do you do it?” I asked.

“My dad burned the image of the fifteenth plane into my mind,” Shadow said. “I just concentrate on that.”

“The fifteenth plane?” I said.

“Yeah,” Shadow said. “I can only go till the thirteenth. My dad is a much better mage than what I’ll ever be.”

To me, it sounded as if her dad was ashamed of her. I didn’t know how to respond.

“What does the Cross World actually look like?” I asked Shadow at last.

“It’s a demon wasteland,” Shadow said. “Complete chaos.” She looked over her shoulder. “Don’t tell Nick I said this, but magic is 100% imagination. Always remember that.”

She walked away, but I felt as if she had just told me how to look into the Cross World.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let my imagination run wild. Demons of all different shapes and sizes slithered, flew, and walked in mind. The ground was still red and hot, but the sky was black. Screams of the tortured and laughs of the mad rang out clearly. A strange sensation took over my body, as if something was pulling me into that world. I let myself go, thinking that this was how I could see onto the planes.

Suddenly, a hand gripped my arm. I opened my eyes and found myself freefalling through a pitch black sky. The person, or thing rather, that had gripped my arm had a ghostly face. Its face glowed like the moon. The thing looked at me, and I screamed. It suddenly sprouted wings and stopped my freefall. I looked down to discover that hordes of demons had gathered beneath me. The thing began to beat its wings hard, and I could feel myself going up. It continued pulling me until I had a sensation that I had slammed into a concrete wall.

Groaning, I sat up and looked around. I was back in the training room. Everyone was staring at me. Shadow stood in front of me, panting hard. I realized that it felt as if I had been shot everywhere. I looked at my arms. They were covered in red blisters. My legs looked the same, and when I felt my face, I realized that my face was covered in them as well.

“What happened?” I asked Shadow weakly, not looking her in the eye.

“You let your imagination run too far,” Shadow said. “You had begun to teleport yourself to the Cross World. Your body was dissolving.”

“But isn’t that how I can look into the Cross World?” I asked.

Shadow looked murderous. “You do that, but you don’t let yourself go into that world! You control it, idiot!”

“Who saved me?” I asked.

“I did,” Shadow said.

“So you can get into the Cross World and not worry about your life?” I shot at her.

Shadow’s jaw twitched. “I have been doing magic since I was born,” she hissed.

“What’s the worst they could have done?” I asked. “My body would’ve been gone by then.”

“I didn’t know you were so eager to die,” Nick muttered.

“They feed off of souls, Michael,” Shadow said. “People say that a demon’s stomach is eternal pain.”

I stood up shakily and winced. “Can you do something about these?” I asked Shadow.

“No,” she said.

I raised my eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Shadow said. “This is the only way you’re going to learn how to keep your physical body out of the Cross World.”

“Fine,” I muttered as I stood up.

“Get back to work,” Shadow told the rest of the class. “If you feel a tugging sensation, resist it.”

The rest of the class passed uneventfully. I could tell that Shadow and Nick were getting frustrated because no one could get it.  While we were walking out, I could hear several people claiming that they felt the pull of the Cross World.

“What was it like?” James asked me. “The Cross World?”

I took a shaky breath. “I never want to go there ever again,” I said. “I felt cold and hot at the same time, and it felt as if the demons were calling me, and I wanted to go.” I felt like a failure. “James, I wanted to go to the demons. My body, my brain, everything, it was telling me to go the demons. To let them do whatever they wanted to me.”

“It’s all right now,” Sally said.

I nodded my thanks as we sat down for dinner.

“This place is hell,” James complained. “All we do is eat, sleep, and train.”

“At least the food isn’t bad,” I said.

James glared at me. “And that’s definitely compensation for driving us this hard,” he said.

“James, it wasn’t that bad,” Sally said.

“I’m exhausted,” James said. “And this training can get us killed. Didn’t you guys notice smoke coming out of Annie’s ears?”

“Which one’s Annie?” I asked.

“Average looks, average height, quiet, smart,” James said.

“No,” I said. “I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me after being through the Cross World.”

“I hate it,” James said. “I wish I had said no when Dr. Furg asked me whether or not I wanted to do it.”

“Why did you say yes?” Sally asked.

James shrugged. “I thought I could be a hero. You know, the star, winning all the battles and saving people. Why did you guys join?”

“I wanted to keep my family safe,” I said.

“There was no better option in my life for me,” Sally said. “The Zodiacs had found out that I had magic and were planning to execute me the day after my Guardian sent me here.”

“Who was your Gua-,” I began.

“Training room, ten minutes!” Nick called from the upper floor.

“We barely got to eat,” I grumbled.

James eyed the rest of his food with longing. “It’s only going to get harder from here.” He stood up and put his tray away.

We walked down the halls with the rest of the class when a man sprinted down the hall and pushed us out of the way.

“Move! Move!” He screeched. “Unless you want to get run over, move!”

Our class parted like the Red Sea, and the man ran through as fast as he could.

“What was that all about?” Sally wondered.

“He probably has a message for Shadow or Nick,” James said. “He turned towards the training room.”

“He was in quite a state of panic,” Sally said.

“Agreed,” James said. “Now hurry up. Today’s Nick’s day for giving out punishments, and I don’t want to be late.”

We entered the training room to find Shadow gesturing and talking fiercely to the guy with the message. Nick stood beside them looking bored. Shadow saw us and gestured towards the door. The messenger took his leave.

“Today,” Shadow said, running her hands through her hair. “We’ll be starting training. It should take this entire class period, but we’re expecting you guys to go faster and faster until it becomes the equivalent of a warm-up.”

“You’ll start by running while wearing these,” Nick said as he held up several metal blocks. “One set goes around your neck and sits on your chest. Two lock around your ankles, two around your thighs, two on your wrists, two on your upper arms, then another set wrapped around your neck. Each block weighs ten pounds. Each set weighs twenty-five.”

“Where will we be running?” A girl asked.

“If you let me finish, then maybe I can tell you,” Nick growled. “We’ll be showing you how to get outside. There’s a ten-mile trail. Do as much of it as you can in three hours. Remember that you have to come back the same amount you went. We’ll leave when it is exactly three hours. Anybody who comes after that will have to find their way out on their own.”

Our class broke out into small whispers.

“That’s kind of harsh,” Sally muttered.

“Since when have they been gentle?” I said.

We followed Nick and Shadow through the complex. We eventually started to head up on ramps, stairs, and ladders. The amount of people we saw became less and less, and the upkeep of the part above was becoming worse and worse with each step.

Eventually, we were walking in a single file line on a narrow, uneven ledge with no railing and little light. Below us, I heard the roar of several tons of water. Nick and Shadow didn’t seem bothered by this at all, but behind me, I could hear Sally shivering.

“Scared of the dark?” I asked her.

“No,” she said. “Heights. We’re so high up, and we could easily fall and die in that river below us.”

“Don’t say that kind of stuff,” James said from in front of us. “Now shut up, and let me concentrate.”

Sally and I closed our mouths. Soon, we were able to see a light from up ahead. When we exited, I had to shield my eyes from the sudden light of the sun.

We were standing in a deserted park. There were gravel trails extending in several directions while trees dotted the sides.

“Before you start running, get your weights,” Shadow said. She eyed a group of boys standing near the back and not getting in line to get the weights. “If you don’t, we’ll make you run the ten miles, not how much you want. And I promise you, we will find out if you don’t have weights.” That made everybody get in line.

Soon, we were all groaning and laboring under our heavy burden.

“I feel like I’m Atlas carrying the sky,” James said.

“I think he carried more than us,” Sally said. We both looked at her. “What?” She asked.

“This is training for when all of you have to wear solid, heavy armor, often made from steel, bone, ivory, bronze, and diamond,” Shadow said. “Start running!” Sally, James, and I started off at a steady run.

“Armor made of bones?” I said between breaths.

“That’s probably what her armor’s made of,” James said. “Human bones.”

“She’s not a bad person,” Sally protested. “Why do you guys keep saying that? She’s actually really nice.”

“Speak for yourself,” I muttered. A black blur suddenly came up behind us and then began to run in front of us.

Shadow turned around while running and gave us a toothy smile. “They’re dog bones. Made from newborn puppies.” She turned back around and sprinted away, her weights- which were much larger than ours- bouncing up and down on her ankles.

“Was that a joke?” I asked.

“She has a weird sense of humor if it was,” James said.

Sally smacked both of us on the back of our heads. “Of courses that’s a joke! Idiots!” She ran ahead of us. James and I stared at her retreating body.

“What’s up with her?” James said.

“No idea,” I said.

“It’s her time of the month,” Alli said. James and I both jumped in start when we realized she was right next to us.

“Where did you come from?” I exclaimed.

Alli rolled her eyes and sighed. “Janet and Lily were running too slow. If you want to go faster, you should probably stop talking.” She ran ahead of us.

“Are we getting left behind by girls?” James said.

“That was so sexist,” a girl I had never even noticed said next to us. She sped up as well, and soon, we were left behind in the dust.

“Yeah,” I said.

James sighed. “Let’s go, man.”

 

 

 

“That wasn’t bad,” Shadow said. “Only a few of you didn’t make it in the time limit.”

I panted and ran a hand through my sweat soaked hair. My arms, legs, and chest all ached. We were standing back in the training room, awaiting our new set of instructions.

“Tomorrow we’re going on another run,” Nick said. “For now, everyone grab a gun from over there. And be careful. They’re loaded.”

Sally swept past us with an arrogant smirk on her face.

“We didn’t lose that badly,” I grumbled to her while walking back to my spot in line.

“You were thirty minutes behind,” she said.

I spread my arms out wide. “See?! Exactly! Not that long.” James snickered. Sally smiled.

“Alright,” Nick said. He snapped his fingers and targets appeared a few yards in front of us.

“Your goal for today is to hit three lines away from the center. Tomorrow will be two, day after, one, day after that, we expect bull’s eyes. These guns are enchanted, so they always have a bullet ready. Just don’t blow anybody apart,” Nick said.

“It would’ve been funnier if he had said what your target was,” Sally said, raising her arms and firing. Her entire body was pushed back from the force of the gun. “Geez,” she said, shaking her body out.

James laughed, but he found that he couldn’t even raise his hands without them shaking from exhaustion.

I lifted my arms and groaned, dropping them again. Something hit my head hard. I whirled around to see Shadow standing with a book in her hand.

“What was that for?” I yowled.

“In battle you’ll need to be faster, even if each muscle in your body’s groaning. Same goes for you,” Shadow shot at James, who was smirking at me. His grin vanished immediately to be replaced by a scowl. “You,” Shadow said, pointing at Sally with her book. “Place your feet shoulder width apart and bend them slightly. Don’t lock your wrists, but keep them tight. Try to keep your feet planted as if somebody’s pushing you, and you don’t want to fall. Other than that, good work. Especially on the run.” Sally glowed with pride.

“Did you hear that?” She said to James and me. “She told me that I was doing well.”

“Don’t let your head explode with the praise,” I said. “I don’t want your ego to be so big that I won’t be able to stand next you either.” James snorted, and Sally’s face turned dark. She pointed her gun at the target and fired, doing as Shadow had told her to. She got a bull’s eye.

Blowing the smoke off of the barrel like in the movies, she faced us. “You were saying?” She asked sweetly. James and I immediately turned around and began to fire at our own targets.

“Sally!” Nick called. “You can head to bed now.” Sally skipped off to bed with arrogant poise.

“How come we can’t go?” I complained.

“Because you have yet to hit your target. We’ll keep you here all night if that’s what it takes,” Nick said. I scowled and began to fire at the target.

My arms howled in protest by the time I managed to hit the third line of the center. James had already left, and I was the only one left in the training room.

“You can leave, Michael,” Nick said. I left thankfully, stretching my sore arms. I made my way down to the cafeteria, where James told me they sold midnight snacks. After eating some Oreos, I made my way back to our dorms when I heard quiet voices coming from the adults’ dorm hallway.

“I don’t want you to leave. You always get hurt. I should be going instead.” I froze in surprise. The voice belonged to Shadow.

“What about the class? We both come across as hard instructors, but you less so. You need to stay here. They might end up being our only hope for the war,” Nick said.

There was silence. Then, “Alright, but you can’t die. Got that?” Shadow said.

“Yeah,” Nick said. “No serious injuries. I promise.” I could hear the sound of a light kiss coming from the hall.

“Bye then,” Shadow said sadly.

“I’ll be back before you know it.” I heard footsteps coming down the hallway. I crept into our hallway. Once Nick was gone, I went to Shadow’s room and knocked on the door.

“It’s open!” She called. I pushed the door open to find her lying on her bed with a phone in her hands.

“Sorry about this,” I said awkwardly.

“It’s alright.” Shadow pushed herself into a sitting position then looked at my face for a second. “You heard our conversation, didn’t you?” I nodded meekly. Shadow rested her back against the wall. “The messenger who came today had news about the war. The Zodiacs got their hands on a new spell. They’re demolishing us. They wanted both of us to go, but we decided on only one, so the other person could teach you guys.”

I sat down on a chair. “What’s the point of this war anyway?” I asked her.

“The humans have little reason to fight,” Shadow said. “The Zodiacs wanted more land, so they declared war on us. All the humans are doing is trying not to die. If the Zodiacs hadn’t declared war, then nobody would be fighting.”

“I see,” I said. “I actually had another reason for coming. Can I ask you a question?”

Shadow looked at me. “You already did.”

“What? Oh, yes. Well, when I went into the Cross World today, how exactly did it happen?” I asked.

“The Cross World is made out of pure chaos,” Shadow said. “Chaos calls humans. They have an urge to go and be devoured by chaos. Those with weak wills succumb. You simply got too close to chaos.”

“And when you rescued me, why did you appear like that?” I asked.

“Appear like what?” Shadow’s voice sounded strange.

“Your face was incredibly pale, your irises were red and the pupils were dilated. Your hair was long and black, and you had black wings made of feathers. And the strangest part was, you felt like darkness,” I said. “It was almost as if I could feel the waves of darkness coming off of you.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Shadow said a bit too quickly.

My eyes narrowed. I knew she was lying, but I also knew that it would be foolhardy of me to pick a fight with her. “Oh.” I stood up abruptly. “All right then.” I nearly reached the door when Shadow called my name.

“What do you think of the training so far?” She asked me.

I pause for a second, contemplating the question. “It’s hard,” I said. “But it’s all practical, so I suppose it’s good.”

Shadow visibly relaxed. “Great. Good night.”

“Good night,” I said. When I went back to my dorm, everybody was snoring. I crawled under my covers and fell asleep immediately, but it wasn’t as peaceful as I would have liked it to be.

 

 

 

“What should we do with him?” A voice hissed.

Author's Note

Cliffhanger! Like it? Hate it? Comment!