Fight or Flight

Lilly Hidden wakes up not knowing anything about herself. When she is introduced to Daemon, her instructor, she learns that she was born and programmed to fight Fairies.

I don’t know where I am or how long I’ve been here. If I was listening for familiar sounds, I was disappointed. There was only silence and my shallow, gentle breaths. I opened my eyes, trying to observe my surroundings. I was in a completely white room. It was completely empty, with the exception of my body sprawled on the hard ground. There were no windows or doors that I could see. Almost box like. I tried to recall any memory that would explain where I was or how I got here. I could not remember anything. My whole head was a blur and a bit fuzzy. I was in the process of trying to remember who I was when, a door appeared out of the wall and a women strides towards me.

“Hi I’m Dr. Light.” The women said. She was tall with straight black hair down to her shoulders and had round dark glasses firmly perched on the top of her head. I couldn’t tell how old she was. She looked almost ageless. I probably should have been scared, but there was just something about this women that made me trust her.

“I’m-I’m…” I tried to tell Dr. Light my name, but I could not remember it. For all I know I could never have had a name in the first place.

Dr. Light looked down at the clip bored I didn’t notice she was carrying earlier, then proceeded to say, “Lilly, Lilly Hidden is your name.”

“How did you know that?” I asked Dr. Light.

“Because it is the name you were given, just now when you woke up.”

“What?”

“I know this is a lot to take in, but you are 17 years old and have been kind of in a deep sleep since you were born”

“But if I have been sleeping my whole life, then how do I know everything already?”

“We injected you every day with knowledge, common knowledge but it’s still better than a blank minded teenager.”

“But how do you even do that?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. I leave that up to the science people to do.”

For some reason I was not having any problems wrapping my head around this. Almost as if I knew all this already. Somewhere in the back of my mind. Dr. Light let me sit for a bit, and let all this new, but familiar, information sink in. After a minute or two of silence, Dr. Light stood up and walked towards the once invisible door.

“Coming?” She asked looking at me.

“Where to?” I asked questionably.

“You’ll see.”

Dr. Light led me out of the little box-like room, and down a long white corridor. Jeez is everything here white? All the doors along the corridor were the same. Light revealed through the bottom of one of the many doors we passed. The rest remained dim. How did she know which one to even go through? At first glance the room was the exact same as the one I was just in, except for one of the walls was a mirror. The whole entire wall! Before I could ask what we were doing in here, the floor begun to shake and move apart. Out of the floor came rack after rack of clothing. That’s when I finally realized I was wearing only a basic blue gown. Like they wear in hospitals. Wait am I in a hospital?

After what seemed like hours of trying clothes on, but was really only 10 minutes, I finally decided on some jeans and a plain black T-shirt. Once I decided I was done, the racks of clothing disappeared back into the floor, and the room was once again empty. Dr. Light led the way out into the vacant corridor once again, but this time we took an elevator that was waiting at the end. We were on the first floor of what appeared to be a 3 story building. When the elevator stopped, we were on the second floor. This floor seemed to have the same all white interior. Dr. Light led me through yet another identical door.

“Lilly, this is Damon Collins,” said Dr. Light once we entered the room.

“Everyone just calls me Dae,” Damon said while holding out his hand, then added, “It’s nice to meet you Lilly.”

“Yo-you too,” I stuttered foolishly. He was tall and, what my mind was telling me, pretty attractive. His dark green eyes gleamed in the light of the room. He also had short black hair that kind of hung in his face, concealing it in shadows.

“Lilly, Dae will be your personal instructor,” Dr. Light informed.

“Instructor for what?” I inquired.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” And just like that Dr. Light swiftly left the room. Leaving a heavy silence behind.

“Well let’s get started,” Dae said after a moment of silence.

“Start what exactly?”

“Training of course.”

“Wait, training for what?” I asked, feeling very confused.

“For hunting Fairies.”

“What!”

“That is what you were programmed to do once you woke up.” Dae explained.

“Are you joking, Fairies?”

“Fairies are no laughing matter.” I would have thought he was joking, but he said it with such a serious face.

“Fine,” I replied, beginning to feel incredibly tired.

Dae led me once again out into the empty corridor and into yet another room. Seriously how many rooms does one building need? This one was different than any of the other rooms I have been in today. It had windows that looked out onto an immense field, disappearing into the distance. That wasn’t the only thing different in the room. This room actually had furniture in the middle. Well not a lot of furniture, just a large white board on the wall, and a small desk and chair facing the board.

“This is where I will be teaching you the history and background of Fairies,” Dae pronounced.

“So like a classroom?” I asked.

“Yes, and out there,” he pointed out the window toward the field, “is where I will be teaching you how to fight.”

“Fight?”

“Yes, you will be learning how to fight and hunt Fairies.”

“Ok, but I have a question.”

“What?

“If you can eject knowledge into me, why not inject knowledge about Fairies and how to fight them in to me?”

“Because the scientists have not found a way of doing it safely yet,” Dae explained, then added, “You look exceedingly tired, we will start tomorrow first thing in the morning.”

“Ok.”

Dae left. I was left alone in the room, and I have no idea where to go or what to do. Before long a women came in and led me to my room. My room wasn’t far from the ‘classroom’ and seemed fairly nice. It had a single bed in the corner, a dresser against the far wall and a bathroom off to the side. When I had arrived, there was a white T-shirt and grey pajama bottoms laying on my bed. I quickly changed into them, throwing my clothes on the floor. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I immediately fell into a deep sleep.

Waking up the next morning was hell. My head felt as if it could explode at any moment, and everything from the day before came rushing back. I had then realized somebody had picked up my clothes I threw on the floor, folded them and placed them on the dresser. On the neatly stacked clothes was a note. It said to find my way to the classroom after I had eaten. Eaten? There is no food anywhere. I then became aware of the smell of eggs and bacon. Looking around the room, I found a tray of food by the door. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until now, looking at the bacon, eggs and toast. Once I had devoured the tray of food, I got dressed and opened the door. I peered down the corridor, trying to remember which way the classroom was. I think it was left, so I went left. I was correct, and found the room easily. Thankfully.

“I see you didn’t have any problems finding the room again,” Dae assumed when I walked in through the door.

“Actually I just walked in a random direction, and it turned out to be the right decision.”

Gesturing to a seat Dae said, “Have a seat, and then we’ll get started.”

“Ok,” I replied, sitting down.

“Ok, so first of all when I say ‘Fairies’ you are probably thinking of tiny people wearing bright colors, covered in glitter, that fly around and live on flowers, right.”

“Well yes, kind of.”

“Get that image out of your head, Fairies are actually the same height as humans, and do not have wings or live on flowers.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“But they are different than people, they are evil.”

“Evil, like evil evil?” I cursorily asked.

“Yes, they kill humans for fun, and attempt to overtake whole cities at a time. They are only after one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Total destruction of the world.”

Confused I asked, “But why?”

“Nobody knows why,” He said and then added, “But there is another thing that makes Fairies different from humans.”

“What?” I wondered what else could be wrong with Fairies that they actually had people to hunt them.

“They are immortal.”

“What? So they can’t be killed?”

“Well it’s not so much that they can’t be killed, it’s that they are exceedingly difficult to kill.”

“That’s why we have special training, to hunt them down and kill them.”

“Exactly.”

“There is another thing you have to worry about when hunting and fighting Fairies,” Dae said with a distressing face.

“What?”

“Just like in the fairytales, they really do have magic powers and can fly, despite not actually having wings.”

“Ok, what else should I know about Fairies?”

Dae then spent the next 3 hours going into detail about the history, and anything else, that I needed to know about Fairies, before I could begin to hunt them. By the end of the 3 hours I felt like I knew enough about the background and history of Faries, to actually be one. After class Dae stopped me by the invisible door, and asked if I wanted to go get lunch with him. I was starving, and had no idea where to go to go get something to eat so I agreed.

The ‘cafeteria’ was more like a lounge area. There were small, round tables with cozy matching chairs all around. Off to the side there were many different sized couches. The room was clear except for us and the person working behind the counter.

“Hi what can I get you?” The girl behind the counter asked as we approached.

I had no idea what to order. There was so many options to order from. Obviously it showed on my face that I could not make up my mind. Dae ordered for me. A ham and cheese sandwich.

“Thanks, I wouldn’t have known what to order even if I stood there for hours,” I uttered sitting at the table Dae led me to.

“No problem, I had the same problem when I first ate here.” Day replied.

“When was that?” I inquired.

“When was what?”

“When was the first time you ate here?”

“The first time would have been almost a year ago, the day I woke up and was told I was going to be an instructor.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

“18.”

“So how long do you have to be an instructor?”

“I was woken up almost a year ago, taught everything there was to know about Fairies so that when they woke you up I’d be prepared.”

“Wait, so I’m your only student?”

“Yes, once I think you are ready, I then take you out on hunts until I think you can handle it yourself.”

“But what about after I am ready on my own, what happens to you?

“Well I can either hunt on my own or retire.”

“Retire? Isn’t it a little early to retire?”

“Actually it is perfectly normal to retire in your late teens when you are an instructor.”

“Really?”

“Yes, but I think I will probably hunt for a bit before I retire.”

“Do instructors ever hunt with other people or maybe even students?”

Dae paused for a moment, pondering over the question for a bit before saying, “There has only been one case of an instructor deciding to hunt with their student.”

“Who?”

“It was probably 100 years ago. Her name was Rose Dale, and when she was finished instructing her student, Jimmy Port, she decided to hunt with him because, as the stories go, she fell madly in love with her.”

“Wow. How did that turn out?”

“Legend has it that because of their love, they were stronger and could draw strength from one another,”

“Wow,” was all I could say.

“Yea, but that has been the only case so far.”

“Interesting.”

“You know this is your time off and don’t have to learn,” Dae stated, shoving the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth.

“I know, but I am actually really interested,” I replied imitating him and shoving the last of my sandwich in my mouth.

“Are you ready for training outside?”

I nodded and followed. We spent the next 2 hours stretching and warming up with simple combat techniques. By the end of it I was beginning to feel sore. I can’t even imagine how I’m going to feel in the morning, and I have to do it all again tomorrow.

I got back to my room, and just like yesterday, the clothes I had thrown on the ground were folded on the dresser. I got changed quickly, just wanting to lay down and relax. Realizing I haven’t had showered yet and smelled strongly of sweat and grass, I headed towards the bathroom. In the bathroom was a tub with a shower head protruding from the wall, a toilet in the corner, a sink beside it, and a full body mirror on the back of the door. I looked at myself for the second time in my life. I had short blonde hair with pale blue eyes. Even though I have no idea how tall I actually am, I estimate that I am probably around 5 feet. I haven’t meet many people, but I think I might be short for my age. I make a mental note to ask Dae about it tomorrow.

After I have taken a hot shower, brushed my teeth, and changed into the PJ’s that were left at the foot of my bed again, I jumped right into bed, and right into a deep sleep.