That night, I woke up hours before morning, screaming in panic. I’d got a terrible nightmare, again. A peculiar thing of nightmares is they’re so easier to remember, unlike pleasant dreams.

This time, the nightmare consisted in me descending into hell – literally. There was Darrell, forcing me with his hand to descend a long, long stairway that went into the belly of the Earth. Then everything became red, and around me were tall demons made of fire. As they saw me, they came closer, ready to throw their fireballs at me. I tried to evoke mine in my palms, but I felt no fire. I had one in front of me...

It was there that I woke up, screaming.

“What’s happening?”

It was Darrell, entering the bedroom.

“I had a bad dream...”

Now, a proper parent, or just someone who cares about you, would give you some comfort. A hug, something hot to drink, anything. All Darrell did was saying this:

“You’ll get used to it. Now go to bed.”

And he closed the door.

Still disbelieving that man would be now my tutor, and that there had been a time when I’d have loved this, I tried to get back asleep, to no avail.

***

Some days later, arrived my last day in my home town. Ignoring Darrell’s several calls to prepare my luggage, I stood all the time in front of the window, looking at the town living its apparent peaceful life, as always. Now I knew what I was watching wasn’t truly peaceful. I mean, it isn't like I ever loved my town: it was nothing special, just your usual suburban English settlement, and I didn’t have many human connections, apart from Darrell and my parents. Probably John too, but he was just my best friend at school, not my best friend in general. It was more about what the town would represent for me in the future: the place where I had the illusion of a normal life. So I desired to prolong that illusion for as long as possible.

“Are you ready, Hayden?”

“Hem...just some more minutes...”

He entered, and looked at me for one moment. “More than some minutes, I’d say. Did you stare in front of the window all this time?”

“I...”

He sighed. “You’d better not letting yourself go too much with sentimentalisms, Hayden. You have to look at your future now. I’ll give you a hand, I’ve already prepared everything else.”

While he packaged my stuff, I didn’t say anything at all. There was nothing to say, and in any case, I lacked the required mental energy.

As we exited the flat, none of us gave a last look at the building where our homes used to be. But I was burning with desire of doing it: only, I knew Darrell wouldn’t approve it. I just sat on his Volkswagen after helping him with the luggage. Next to us was a big van that would transport the rest to Devon. Darrell sat on the driving place, turned the car on and left. I sweated copiously, from the effort of avoiding both looking back at my former house and evoking the fireballs by mistake.

***

Although I was pretty much used to travelling with Darrell within the country, we had never gone so far yet. It took over four hours to reach my new home, during which the environment became less and less urbanized, especially after getting past Reading. Darrell said the motorway we were crossing passed through a natural reserve; to spend the time, I tried to enjoy the landscape as much as my mind could afford. Then after Bristol we went south, and then countryside again, with nothing interesting to be seen at all, unless you’re a fan of sheep. Suddenly, a road sign announced we’d just entered Devon; but I saw no dramatic change in the environment. Finally, the motorway ended, and Darrell brought the car into Plymouth before taking another route that lead north. Eventually, he took an unpaved track surrounded by a forest, ending into a majestic Victorian manor: my new house. In front of the entrance stood an old woman, who walked towards us as we got out of the car.

“Mr. Khyntelig,” she said, looking at Darrell, “welcome back. I have been taking care of your inhabitation for the whole time during your absence: you will find it just as you left it.”

“Very good, Tajana. I knew I could count on you.” Then Darrell turned to me. “Hayden, this is Miss Tajana Ward. She’s the caretaker of the manor, which has hosted many generations of in-training Darkfires throughout the centuries.”

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“Wait...she knows?” I asked, surprised. I had imagined his house was kept in secrecy from everyone around, and I definitely didn’t expect someone else to be present. In any case, I doubted she would act as a maternal figure, considering what I was supposed to train on.

“I’m a descendant of an old lineage of members of the Order from Devon, young one,” she explained, with a voice that showed no emotion. “Many of us are caretakers of manors, where an older Darkfire trains a youngling. Despite not having your same powers, we belong to the Order just as you two.”

Just as I figured out. If she belonged to the Order, she’d never be an amiable figure. I wondered how cruel she would act. Then, I realized something else was included in what she had just said.

“Wait...I’m already a full member?” I asked.

“Yes, Hayden,” Darrell answered, “as long as others get notified of your existence, you’re a member. I took care of that these days.”

I gulped. They had thought of everything.

“What’s the boy’s name, Darrell?”

“My name is Hayd-”

“I was asking Darrell, not you.”

“His name is Hayden Darce, Tajana,” Darrell said, apparently ominous to how brutally rude Miss Ward she had just been. But that had to be standard procedure, of course. It was still awful. I could only hope I’d get quickly used to it.

With that, we entered the building. I got surprised once more when looking at the internals: I expected something straight out of an evil lord from one of the fantasy books I’d read. Instead, it was amazingly beautiful and sophisticated, totally unlike the suburban flat I and my parents lived in. The manor opened in a large entrance hall of yellowish marble, with a long series of portraits on the wall, which probably belonged to previous Darkfires. Two great rosewood doors were located side by side: the one on the left leaded to the dining room, which had a big television screen just in front of the white table. The other door brought to a living room with high windows and a second, bigger television located in front of a large, brown couch, above a brick chimney. Many bookshelves contained lots of volumes whose titles proved to contain boring, academic subjects: for sure, nothing I could enjoy reading all by myself. The entrance had two curved stairs that ended in a corridor overlooking the downstairs, whose doors conducted to the bathrooms and the private rooms. As we continued the tour of the house and went upstairs, Miss Ward showed mine: it had a wooden canopy bed on the left, an armchair, a desk and nothing more. A window gave me a nice sight of the surrounding forest. All this majesty almost made me forget of the reason I was here.

“So now you have seen your new home,” Darrell said in the end, while we left my room (they had refused to show their own bedrooms), “but that’s not all. I will now take you to the dungeon.”

“What?”

“The dungeon, Hayden. It’s an underground floor, and it’s there where I’ll train you. I had been trained there too.”

“Were you born in Plymouth?”

“Yes.”

“You had a mentor too, right?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he now?”

He paused. “He died a long time ago.”

“Was he like a father to you?”

“I already had my parents, at that time. He had to train me on hating, so he couldn’t give me as much love as a father can. I just knew that I had to follow him. Now, enough with questions. It is time to go to the dungeon.”

He began walking down the stairway to the ground floor, without even waiting for me. I followed him until he stopped in front of the back of the left stairway, a solid marble wall.

“Look very carefully, Hayden. There is a secret mechanism that will open the passage.”

I was sceptic. That marble seemed unlikely to open in any way. But then, he made a gesture with his hand, touching the solid wall, and incredibly, a door opened, revealing a new, darker staircase which went down.

“Follow me, and close the door.”

This wasn’t like the rest of the beautiful manor at all. The walls were no more of wood or marble, but of dark grey stone. A dim illumination was provided by a series of candles on the side. My uneasiness grew with each step: my dark imagination had turned to be, in the end, real.

Then an arch conducted to one single room. The first thing I noticed was its immensity. It was as large as the whole area occupied by the entire manor and beyond, with the same weak illumination provided by the candles. At first, it seemed to contain nothing at all, but a better view of the environment revealed to me a set of stone statues that depicted, without any doubt, Apollonids.

“This is where I’m going to train you,” Darrell announced.

Unable to control myself, I let my uneasiness be confessed. “I think I preferred when we went into the countryside...”

“This place is far more efficient. In the countryside, we wouldn’t be able to capture Apollonids without provoking damage.”

“You...can capture Apollonids? In our house? But...”

“No need to worry for now. Once your training has made you develop a sufficient level of hatred, you’ll be able to attract them, but that’s an advanced technique that requires years. This dungeon is empty enough to make them find nothing to destroy. Except for us every now and then, but we never bring too many at once. You’ll be safe with me.”

I stared at the vastness of that room. This was where I’d spend most of my time now...a cold, dark underground dungeon. A hidden, unfriendly settlement with no illumination but trembling lights and the occasional Apollonid. Its atmosphere was, nevertheless, very suited for the purpose. What better place to train as a Darkfire than a gloomy secret room that looked like a prison? Plus, wasn’t the whole house going to be my prison?

“I don’t like it...”

“You’re going to, Hayden.” He paused one moment. “Today, we won’t begin your official training because we’re tired for the journey. It’s a fortune we’re in July and you don’t have to go to school: we can start tomorrow morning and make a long session. Speaking of which, you won’t go to school any more. Your existence must be shown as little as possible. Therefore, starting from September, you’re going to receive education at home until you’re still obliged to receive it.”

Well, at least I would have no more bullies problems.

“Shall we still play together?” I asked.

“This dungeon is where we’ll play together, from now on. I’ll call you back at half past seven for dinner. For now, go rest in your room. This is an order.”

We got back to the manor and I immediately went to my new room. The journey, with its humdrum landscape, had actually drowsed me: without thinking, I lay down on the canopied bed and I thought no more.