Part 1 Chap 4
Devin yawned and stretched towards the ceiling. It took her a moment to realize where she was, and she still didn’t know exactly. She reached over and petted Skelacat, waking her up. Realizing she smelled smoke, she jumped up, attempting to find the source.
“It’s you smart one,” Skelacat murmured, rolling over and trying to get back to sleep.
“Huh?” Devin asked, picking her up and sniffing the top of her head.
“Grrr,” she wiggled out of her grip and fell on the floor, “You smell like smoke, it’s been that way since the explosion,” She began to lick her tummy, “Great, now I smell like smoke too! It’ll take forever to get this out.”
“You can always take a shower,” Devin said, reading the instructions on bathing again and getting a towel, soap, shampoo, and conditioner.
Skelacat grunted as Devin slipped into the shower. Devin laughed, wow, she thought, I feel great…I never feel this great. Looking up, she saw a skylight, and the only difference between how it looked when she came and during the “night” was the fact it had stars, though she couldn’t recognize any.
??
Feeling refreshed and ready to go, she tackled the papers they gave her during the night about her past and experiences. She found a schedule, and briefly skimmed it, not worried.
TIME CLASS SUPERVISOR
7:00-7:30 BREAKFAST Watch
7:35-9:30 LIFE SCIENCES MS. Rawning
9:35-12:00 HISTORY MS. DUgood
12:05-12:50 LUNCH watch
12:55-8:00 HONING WARABE
8:00-12:00 Dinner Watch
She silently rejoiced over having no math in the strange schedule, and then continued on the paperwork. She was soon startled by three knocks on the door, puzzled, she checked the door. Nobody was there but, farther down the hall there was a figure knocking on all the doors. She ran to catch up, long white hair flowing behind the figure.
“Hey! Wait up!”
The figure turned and looked down at her small figure, “Yes, is there a problem?”
Devin was shocked, speechless, and shook her head. The figure nodded, and continued knocking on all the doors. Devin ran back into her room and slammed the door.
“What is it?” Skelacat asked, “You don’t get freaked out easily.”
“There’s a living PUPPET out there!” She panted, pointing, “She had white hair wand the rest of her was completely black and silver except her face, the face of a twenty-year-old! With red cheeks and white skin! It even had strings hanging off her limbs where they’d been cut!”
Skelacat sighed and jumped off the bed and through the wall, “Well it’s fine now, and it’s time for breakfast,” she motioned towards the small clock-like-thing on the wall. Devin sighed and grabbed a map and the schedule.
“I didn’t need you to check!” She hissed angrily, “I’m not a little kid with a monster in the closet! I was just shocked.”
Skelacat trotted by her side, easily keeping pace, “Sure.”
They walked through the large doors into the dining hall, and the first thing they noticed was a group of kids gathered around the side of the door. Devin forced her way to the front and saw a large blob-like thing that resembled a punch ball. It was green with light purple flowers painted on it, its painted mouth was smiling, showing rows of sharp painted teeth; and its eyes were two black dots. Devin received a chill from looking at it and turned to find a seat.
“Repulsive thing,” she murmured, “It’s full to the brim with terrible, tragic, negative energy.”
“I agree,” Skelacat replied, “That must be the watch, it’s horrible and they’re laughing at it. Oh look, there’s Jackie.”
Devin looked over and, sure enough, Jackie was attached to Chad’s waist like a parasite. Seeing her, Jackie released Chad, much to his relief, and ran up to her.
“Konnichiwa! Guess what!”
“Chad’s sexy?”
“Yes, very much, but not what I was going to say. I can see Skelacat so that means…”
“You have a guardian! What kind? Male or female? Color? What Color eyes? When?”
“Ok, first…can I pet Skelacat?”
“It’s up to her.”
Skelacat sighed and nodded. Jackie squealed and pet her head, “She’s so soft. Much softer then mine. Okay, be right back!”
She ran off and quickly returned holding a white rabbit, with the same silvery bones and red heart as Skelacat, but silvery-green eyes. Jackie plopped her down on the bench. “Devin, Skelacat! This is Bunny-Chan! Bunny-chan, this is Devin and Skelacat.”
Devin held out her hand palm up as was taught by Skelacat as the proper way to greet them. Bunny-chan waved a paw over her hand and a small purple flame appeared promptly. Devin smiled and sat back, content, she had won another approval from one who mattered. Skelacat touched her nose to Bunny-Chan’s and there was a small flash, then she sat back too.
“Whoa! That was cool! Will my hand burn too?” Jackie asked Bunny-chan.
Bunny-chan blinked lazily before shaking her head and bolting off.
“Hey! Where are you going?!” Jackie yelled, ignoring the stares.
Skelacat shook her head, smiling, “You and Devin are so alike. She was the same in the beginning. For the first few days we can’t talk, and like a new pet, or a child, we are scared and curious at the same time. After a period we gain our wisdom for we are no longer newborn and can be of help. This is the most fragile part of our lives; this is the easiest time to destroy us. Your guardian’s character will emerge at the same time her voice does. Until then she’ll stay like that,” she said, pointing a paw towards Bunny-chan huddled in the corner, with a look of total fear in her eyes. “Oh, and I suppose you keep her close until then, if she runs too far away then she could simply dissipate.”
“Yeah, there’s a certain limit to how far away they can go, once they’re mature then they’ll be stopped by what’s like a wall, but until then it’s dangerous, Skelacat almost fell apart.”
“That’s very interesting,” a voice murmured from behind her. It was Jasper; he sat to her right, “I’ll be sure to remember.”
“Remember what? You don’t have a guardian, you don’t need to,” she replied, annoyed. Why didn’t I notice him, she wondered, am I losing my touch?
“Yo Jasper,” Jackie muttered from behind Devin.
“Hey, Jackie. And how can you be so sure I don’t have a guardian?” He asked, smirking. He held open half of his jacket and a white bat clung to the liner, “Shhhh, the baby’s sleeping,” he murmured, smirking at Devin.
“So you don’t know everything,” Skelacat sarcastically laughed, “I’m so shocked.”
She was about to retort when a shrieking noise sliced the air.
“Thank you Rawning,” Warabe said to a shadowy figure.
“No problem,” came a throaty reply.
“You all know me, I’m Warabe, and I’ll see you all after lunch, but I‘m going to need to get you all to do a test before anything.”
Half listening, Devin reached over and grabbed a roll to munch on. Warabe reached out with one thin arm, and a line of round tiles rose and floated in a spiral design. What looked like smoke flew over the tiles and lumps of various colors, textures, shines lay on the tiles in its place. There were many more then the amount of people. She watched the smoke as it went back into the multi-colored blob by the door; its eyes glowed for a moment before settling back as the silly little thing it appeared to be.
She had missed the order telling everyone to get a lump and the chaos that ensued was her warning. People ran around to different tiles, finally choosing one and standing in front of it. She walked over to the one farthest away, it seemed to be calling her name. It was a silvery oval on the tile, shining slightly under the dim light. Even before she reached it, it shimmered and morphed. It stretched and transformed as though molded by unseen hands until in front of her lay a scythe. Stunningly simple yet beautiful, silver with nine stripes on the bottom end. The blade reflected her surroundings on it. Feeling an odd sense of calm she reached out and picked it up.
“Congratulations,” Skelacat murmured.
It felt right; Devin ignored her and the many stares from students and teachers combined. Looking around, she spotted Jackie, who glared at her with a jealous look from behind a purple lump. Chad stood to her left, staring with his mouth open. She continued looking and spotted Jasper in the center of the spiral, he smiled slightly and touched his. It immediately leaped to life beneath his fingers and stuck to his skin, looking like water the silver disappeared beneath his sleeves and nothing different happened.
Suddenly everyone was having a reaction to the lump in front of them. Jackie’s lump did a similar act as Jasper’s. Once the chaos were over, the boy to her left had hands made from ice, or crystal, one of the two. She reached out to touch them to see and his right hand melted under her touch. She immediately drew back her hand, shocked, she didn’t want to hurt him, and it regenerated. She looked around at the mismatched group of students. One girl’s hair had been replaced by snakes, and Devin guessed she had the Medusa effect. Devin searched for Jackie but didn’t see her.
“Jackie?”
“Yeah?” came a voice from behind her.
Devin turned, not seeing anything, “Where are you?”
“Right here.”
“No your not…Wait! You’re invisible!”
“Really?” Jackie appeared, smoky first, then solid.
“Not anymore,” she turned to look at everyone else, Jasper looked smug, but the same. Chad looked a mix of shocked and dejected. Nothing had happened; his lump lay as lifeless as road kill. Including him, there were about seven people that nothing had happened to.
“Congratulations all! You have just had a sped up version of your abilities being magnified! Those of you in which nothing happened, carry the lumps around for a few days, something may happen yet. Now, you must go to your classes, I will see you all later,” Warabe told them. He walked off the podium and out a door behind it. They were shooed out by the puppet, not taking much to get them out for those who hadn’t seen it.
??
The Life Sciences room was dark and full of tube-like cages and trunks. As soon as she walked into the classroom she ran over to the rat cage and threw it to the ground. The same shrieking noise as earlier emitted from the figure behind the desk as the cage crashed to the ground. Everyone scrambled to seats as it emerged, lunging to catch the rats. Devin ran up and stomped on its hands until the rats escaped. Sitting back down, she watched as it came into the light.
The first thing she noticed was the one rabbit ear and one deer ear. Another half of a rabbit ear was stitched on halfway up the first, these sprouted out from stringy black hair, cut long on one end and chin-length on the other. Next, her face was stitched in many places, and one eye was green, the other grey. The arms were made up of three different pieces each, and she put one of her hands that had fallen off during the stomping down on the desk. She turned and opened a chest behind her, and began digging through it.
“Why’d you do that?” She screamed, she was the one with the throaty voice. “That was my lunch!” She pulled another hand out of the chest and grabbed a needle and thread. “Now I’m going to go hungry!” She began to sew the hand on.
“Um…sorry?” Devin replied, unsure what to say. She heard a student behind her vomit.
“You vomit you sit in it!” She yelled, cutting the thread with her teeth.
“What?” The shaky voice asked.
“SIT!” She roared. Devin chuckled slightly and the teacher was by her side immediately.
“You think it’s funny! I can make you sit with her…what are you doing?”
“Twying two twouch muh nose with muh twongue,” she replied, falling out of her chair and wriggling on the floor in her quest. The teacher’s arms went limp and she stared at her with a look that said ‘Why God?’. The teacher picked her up and set her in her chair.
“STOP!” she commanded. Devin did stop, and smiled at her, “Yes?”
“I…I dislike you with great intensity,” she growled before practically slithering to her desk.
“Now, I am Rawning. I will teach you how to create artificial life forms. Like me. First, we will need to gather materials so grab a poncho and a shovel and follow me.” The students sat in their seats or vomit, not moving. “I said…FOLLOW ME!” she roared and the students sprang to life.
??
“After that teacher I can’t wait to see this one,” Devin laughed.
“You smell like Death,” Jackie murmured, she sniffed her hair, “I smell like death…Oh NO! We’re DOOMED!!!”
Jackie fell to the ground in the fetal position.
“Jackie…come on…we’ll be late…”
She sighed and grabbed her wrist, attempting to drag her. Realizing its futility, she picked her up and flung her over her shoulder. Jackie’s thin figure easy to pick up. They arrived to History just in time. After setting her in a seat by Chad she took her own. The teacher arrived after her.
“Oh, I’m sorry I’m late! It won’t happen again!” she panted, hair in her face and papers flying everywhere. Chad got up and helped her pick them up. “Well then,” she straitened her skirt, “Thank you, I sure hope you receive abilities, I wouldn’t want to see you go. I’m Julie Dugood. You can call me Julie or Ms. Dugood. I’ll be your teacher for all the time you need me. I know all the history of this place by heart, as well as a mental map of it.”
“Why do you have a mental map?” Devin asked, it seemed like a lot of trouble.
“Because for the past eighty years I’ve been searching for my daughter. I’ll answer your questions and then we’ll start class.”
Eighty years? She didn’t look over twenty-four! Her pale skin, pretty features, small figure and glossy black hair, classified her as beautiful.
“Anymore questions?”
“Yeah, where exactly are we?”
“Oh, I suppose that’s where we should start. Your in the middle-realm, it’s not Heaven, Hell, Earth or any other religious place. You see, different divine beings got tired of people who weren’t ready to accept they were dead to keep showing up on their doorsteps, so they got together to create a place for them. Anyone here, besides you all, are dead but not ready to move on, or they’re vampires, werewolves, artificial life or another similar being.”
“So if they’re dead,” Devin began, “And we’re not, then what happens to us if we ‘Die’?”
She smiled nervously, “You um, your gone, you don’t go anywhere. Your gone, your souls not floating around, you don’t get reincarnated or anything, you gone, poof! Like that. So don’t commit suicide!”
“What’s with all the graves if this is a home for spirits?” Jasper asked
“Excellent question! Whenever anyone is buried as part of a respectful rite or something, then a physical representation of their grave and them as they were buried appears in the ground here. They don’t decay or disappear, they’re always here, since we don’t have enough space for that then we get more space at the edge. Our world is flat, and more and more space appears from this.”
“Why put the graves here?”
“The graves are here so we can see who’s dead. For example, if a man vows to wait for his wife when he dies then he can check and see if his wife has died yet.”
“So, if you’re a spirit, and Rawning is an artificial life form, then what’s Warabe, the Watch, and that thing that we saw at lunch?” Jackie asked, latching onto Chad’s arm.
“No one knows what exactly Warabe is. The Watch and Lucile are inanimate objects that have been filled with energy and entities. They have no will of their own and cannot really think for themselves beyond certain parameters. The Watch was the first attempt by Headmaster, created without using a physical object to fill it cannot move, what you see is basically its home. It will come out to do its job. Lucile was a puppet that’s strings were cut. She was the second one, the younger sister of the two. Lucile is the maid, the cook, and everything else. She wanders the halls at night to make sure everyone is in their rooms at night. She may look harmless but she’s not. The Watch makes sure no one leaves school campus, between the two of them everything is kept in order. Anymore questions? Right, let’s get started.”
??
“And what’s this beautiful lady’s name?” Jasper asked, referring to Skelacat.
Devin munched on a PB&J sandwich, “She won’t tell me, we refer to her as Skelacat.”
“I know I’m beautiful, flattery will get you nowhere little boy.” Skelacat purred, “But it’s nice to know someone notices,” she turned to Devin, “I like this boy.”
Devin ignored her, “So what’s your bat’s name?”
“Same here, he wont tell me, we agreed on Zanac though,” he replied, watching him flit around the room. They had already been introduced but she didn’t know his name. Like before, the small purple flame had appeared.
“Yours matured fast, it took Skelacat here three days last summer.”
“Bunny-Chan is starting to not be so frightened,” Jackie said, petting her guardian, “I think she’s calming down.”
They suddenly heard a scream from the other side of the dining hall.
“Chad-boy’s is here,” Skelacat smirked, “This is a very interesting reaction.”
Chad ran up to them, followed by a white fox, “I blame you!” he screamed, pointing to Jackie and Devin at the same time before running off.
“He pointed at both of us so…who does he blame?” Jackie asked. Devin shrugged and muttered something like ‘I dunno’ between bites. Jackie pondered it for a second before jumping up and running off, “Hey Chad! Come meet Bunny-chan!”
“Pass the Sweet Rolls,” she told Jasper.
“You’re a vegan?” he asked.
“Practically, now pass the sweet rolls!”
??
She looked down the line, they all stood still as statues as Warabe inspected then. He poked one girl’s stomach and then ordered her to do a lap. The whole second floor was one room, the wood paneled floor was dusty and the windowpanes were replaced by bars. He finally reached her and inspected her, after what felt like forever he turned to the next person. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw the flash of a fist hurtling towards her face. She ducked and stepped backwards at the same time, it hit the air above her head. He looked at her a moment, opened his fist and patted her on the head before moving on. She sat on the dusty floor despite his strict orders and put the scythe on her lap.
“I think you did a good job,” Skelacat praised, jumping in her lap, “I didn’t even see that coming.”
“Thanks but I’m not worried about that, I’ll explain what I’m worried about later, right now he’s talking and I need to pay attention.” She stood up and listened.
“All of you need to line up against the wall, those who have their abilities magnified against that one, and those who haven’t against that one. I will call you up one by one to demonstrate, if you look inside yourself you’ll know how to use everything. And…you first.” He pointed to Jackie.
She nervously stepped up, unsure of what to do.
“Look inside yourself, I’ll wait, and aim for that wall,” he pointed towards the blank wall.
She nodded and breathed deeply. Minutes went by and still nothing.
“Can you look inside yourself a bit faster perhaps?” Warabe muttered.
And suddenly, she was gone. Vanished into thin air. Devin heard her breathing next to her.
“Good Job,” she murmured, “Are you gonna go stand by Chad now?”
“Yup.”
Devin smiled to the ground, one thing will never change. Others went up, pretty soon it was her turn. She walked up to the center of the room and centered herself, pretty soon she could feel the power mounting. Unsure how to release it this time, she stood there, feeling like she would explode. She had never released it without a spell, and suddenly she received a series of images of how to release the excess energy. She held the scythe in a loose grip and surrendered to instinct. With her eyes closed, she did a few kicks, swipes with the scythe, and opened her eyes to see a ball of energy growing larger between her hands. She threw it at the wall, and more and more of them. Now she kept her eyes open and swiped the scythe through the air, a giant slice appeared in the wall along with previous ones. An aerial kick produced flames. Many other pictures appeared in her head as instructions but she stopped. Finally, the pressure had eased and she had a look around, towers of flames rose around her, the wall she was told to aim at was scorched and cut.
She looked at the students and Warabe, panting and smiling. Warabe’s face was unreadable but the students had a look of hope, fear, and awe. She felt happy, like everything was right.
“Next.”
“What?”
“Back in the line. Next.”
She walked over to the line and stood next to Jasper.
“You have fire in your eyes,” Jasper murmured.
“Pardon, is that some kind of pick up line?”
He laughed quietly, “If you want it to be, but it’s true.”
“Um…thanks…I think.”
“Very good job,” Skelacat rubbed between her legs, “I knew you had it.”
“I agree,” Zanac said, it was the first time she’d heard him.
“Wait a moment,” Warabe’s harsh voice penetrated their conversation, “I need to clean this up.”
It grew suddenly cold, she could see her breath and the breath of everyone else, and the moist cold put the fires out immediately. Then it was normal again, “Continue.”
Soon it was Jasper’s turn. He looked cocky as he stepped up to the middle. His eyes flashed and there was a ripping noise as the back of his shirt shredded. A pair of large, silvery angel wings protruded from him. He sliced through the air with one and three feathers whistled through the air and stuck into the far wall, the metallic feathers were razor sharp. He laughed as Warabe asked for the next student.
