Crawling through a vent is shockingly difficult, especially when you have to make as little noise as possible because you’re not supposed to be crawling through a vent. Just a fun fact for you. Anyways, as things currently stand I’m crawling through a vent. It’s dusty, cramped, cold, and I’m simply ecstatic. Mercury is so cool, I’m lucky I fell into his room and not Nia’s.
GOD Nia is so annoying! Leo was showing me the facilities of the school, helping me acclimate to the new environment, being a good guy. Then, in the cafeteria, I took a baked potato. Apparently, that was a bad idea, because the chefs who work here make a specific meal for each person each day and that was Nia’s. She couldn’t take a joke, honestly. I took a bite of it before she even walked over, so I thought it was funny when I took another bite after she explained the situation.
She has no sense of humor. She just immediately attacked me!
My attention is required in the present again, because I’ve arrived back at the vent in the bathroom where I left. I climb back down through it carefully, a small smirk on my face because I’m such a ninja prodigy. I flush the empty toilet to throw anybody off my trail, and open the stall confidently.
“So. The baked potato ruined your digestive track then?” Leo says casually, appearing from out of nowhere. He’s standing by the sinks, looking indifferently at his iPad.
“Oh Jesus…” I whisper quietly, my hand snapping to my chest as my heart explodes momentarily. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that. So, back to my room?” I say with a nervous smile. He didn’t see me, and he had no proof I did anything wrong. I shuffle slowly around him to get to the sink.
“Well, you know.” Leo says, yawning and putting away his ipad. He seems a little confused and looks up at the ceiling, with a finger thoughtfully put against his chin. “I don’t think people typically piss in the vents.” Uh-oh. There it is.
“Am I in trouble?” I say quietly, my face feeling hot and my shoulders rising as I look to the floor to try and hide my face. Literally my second day here, and I’m already going to be kicked out..
Leo puts his hand on my shoulder, and pushes me back playfully. “Nah.” I look up at him, my eyes wide, only to see him smirking at me. “If anything this school needs you all the more. Nobody’s used the vents like that since my graduation. Maybe don’t try and go under my nose again.” Leo heads towards the exit to the bathroom, and pauses before he leaves. “I don’t care if you lie to your teachers though,” he adds without looking back to me.
I blink at the door that shuts behind him, and then look at myself in the mirror. I’m...Pale. And I’m more jacked than I was a few days ago. Am I imagining that? I look closer, no I’m definitely not imagining that. I don’t know how long I was out after Mr. Robins knocked me out, but there’s not a mark on me. “The shots...That’s real?” I murmur to myself, a giant grin spreading across myself. Oh god, is that what I look like when I smile?! “Hey! Leo!” I shout lightly, my eyes lingering on the reflection of myself as I head after him. “You were serious about the shots?” I ask, opening the door and coming face to chest with the unreasonably tall guy.
“Yeah. Every person who has an Emblem is given experimental drugs that boost your immune system, cellular regeneration, ATP production, and neural processing. Otherwise you could be killed by any random person with a gun.” He responds to me, shrugging lightly. “Get with the program.” He says, almost teasingly.
“Wait, but Leo, I look…” I poke my bicep, unable to quell the smile that my face evolves into. “Well, how do I say this formally… I look great! Athletic? Strong! Cool, you know?” In response to this, Leo actually laughs, before he heads towards the elevator that would take us back to the first floor. Also known as the room where us students and the basic classes are.
“Whatever. You do know where you need to go tomorrow, right? If you don’t, the Principal will get all pissy with me.” He mentions offhandedly, and I got the feeling he wasn’t asking out of concern for me but out of obligation. I’ve gotten that feeling a lot about Leo.
“Leo, why do you work here?” I blurted out as I joined him in the elevator. Maybe it was a bad question to ask, because as the doors shut in front of us Leo’s blue eyes widened and just stared at me quietly. The moment of silence grows into almost a minute, and I can't take it anymore so I blurt out, “You don’t seem too enthused about watching boys like me grow into exceptional men with great talents. Not to imply I don’t already have talents, but you wouldn’t happen to be here for the-GASP-You’re totally here to pick up chicks aren’t you?! Soon as they turn 18 your plan is-”
“Alright, you’re pushing your luck.” Leo says, cutting me off and playfully dropping his fist on the top of my head. “I’m working here because I have to. You’ll get it pretty soon.” Leo mentions with a knowing expression on his face, as a glimmer of light that I don’t really like in his emerald green eyes.
“Oh...Gotcha, gotcha.” The doors open up the elevator and Leo finishes escorting me to my room, less so because I needed an escort and much more so because I was totally going to run off on my own if he let me. So...Maybe I did need an escort. “Well, I’m going to bed, you can go now!” I bring up with a grin, standing in front of my door and waiting for Leo to head off. I wanted to find out which room was Mercury’s…Maybe which room was Nia’s too.
“Sure, but if you do anything else before going to bed I’ll lock you in your room after your classes every night you stay here.” His voice was cold, and his eyes told me not to mess with him. So, of course, as he was walking away, I was tempted to mess with him. Then again, as I peered into my room and spied my bed, sleep wasn’t sounding all that bad either. I closed the door behind me and jumped into bed, kicking off my shoes in the process.
“Hey mom!” I whisper excitedly, my face in a bright grin and my eyes shut. “I’m at this super cool school, you’ve been watching you’re probably all caught up. I hope you’re doing great! I got into a fight, you’re probably a little annoyed about that. But I also made a friend! I think. I know you’ve probably got a lot on your plate, but if you wouldn’t mind, I’d really appreciate it if you could find dad! Now that I think about it, this is the first time since the funeral that I’ve asked you to find him…” I open my eyes and sit up, looking over at the light switch and throwing a card to turn it off. I pull the card back to me with my Emblem, and look at the card. I picked it at random, but I really wasn’t surprised when it was the queen of hearts. “I love you mom.” I finish, putting my head back on the pillows and falling asleep.
- - - - - - - -
A bright arena, almost a colosseum, with stands that tower high into the sky and vibrate with the movement of millions of people. It’s unbearably hot, and the area I’m standing in is covered in coarse sand. “This sucks…” Somebody murmurs next to me, and I turn to see Mercury. His gray hair and blue eyes are unmistakable, even though his face seems to be a little bit more akin to George Clooney. When I reach out I realize I’ve gotten a pedicure, or manicure? Whichever one is the hands. And my skin’s pretty tan too. And...I have...Boobs. Hm. “Nia, we’ve gotta go.” Mercury says to me, picking up a large lumpy body bag that appeared out of nowhere. Also it confirmed I’ve become Nia. I run along with Mercury, moving through the huge desert that served as where we were standing, before we’re stopped by Leo.
“I can’t let you guys go.” He says, his hands in his pockets but his face ready to kill. Mercury tsks and takes a step back, looking at me and then back at Leo. “Get ready.” He says, pulling his hands out of his pockets and cracking his neck. I put my hands in two fists, and then Leo’s appeared right next to me. “Alright. You guys go. It’ll be fine.” He says, patting my shoulder and walking past us. I turn around and see a huge tidal wave of darkness approaching us, and I dash forwards without thinking.
Mercury is right with me, still holding the body bag. I can't afford to turn around and check up on the darkness, and my chest is starting to burn. Mercury shouts out, “He’s waking up!” Before he throws the body bag over to me. I skid to a stop and catch it, the body bag dissolving away. I look into my own eyes, I’m holding myself.
“I’m waking up?” I murmur to myself, furrowing my brow before being hit with the wave of darkness that has caught up with me.
- - - - - - - -
I jerk awake, and blink a few times. “Wha!?” I murmur, my mind not really processing my dream. I look around the dark and barren room, then look down at myself. I’m me! I let out a sigh of relief and then flop back down onto the bed. “...Haha, what was that?” I wheeze out, realizing how weird and honestly funny my dream was in hindsight.
It’s unbelievably tempting to go back to sleep, but instead I do actually get up. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth, throw on some clothes the school provided for me, and look at myself in the mirror. I definitely look stronger, and my green eyes sparkle more than they ever have before. A small smile starts to appear on my face, but I move on before I have to face the reality that I look terrible when smiling, again. When I come out into the main room, the creak of a door meets me and Mrs. Kraus enters. She’s paired with her husband, I met them both once when Leo was showing me the rounds of the school. “Hey! I didn’t oversleep, did I?” I call out to the two of them, flashing an apologetic smile. Mr. Kraus takes the initiative over his wife, stepping to me and putting his hands on my shoulders. I look blankly at his hands and then back up at him, “Can I….Help you?” I mumble awkwardly. Then a searing pain permeates through my shoulders to my arms, and my entire body screams out in agony. It feels like a thousand needles are being stabbed into both my arms, and my shoulders are in such white hot pain it feels more like they’re on fire. I can’t even muster up the energy to scream, and with my eyes wide as dinner plates I fall trembling to the ground.
Mrs. Kraus’s face enters my view, a sickly sweet smile on the decrepit woman. “You can actually. Please do consider this a strike, for your violation of conduct yesterday. If anything like that happens in either of our classes, you will face more dire consequences Mr. Jones. I do hope I’ve made myself clear. You’re a mongrel who we’ve picked up off the streets. There won’t be any complaints if you happen to disappear one day.” With those words she leaves the room, with her husband following her. I wish I could say that I valiantly stood up to the two of them, but I was still kinda paralyzed with pain from whatever Emblem Mr. Kraus used. It took me ten minutes to stand up again, another five before I could talk, and as I was walking to my first class my arms were still numb.
When I got into the class, I was stunned to find only a handful of other students there. Including me there were only six, and I know there were more yesterday. “Am I early?” I call out to them, glancing around and trying to find a clock. They didn’t have one in my room, which was rather annoying.
“Yes, actually.” Mrs. Kraus’s voice responds to me from the head of the classroom, a smile on her face as though earlier this morning never happened. “But it’s quite alright. Take a seat next to Thomas, you’ll be sitting between him and Mercury. Mercury isn’t here yet though, so introductions between the two of you will have to wait.” She waves passingly at an empty chair, motioning for me to sit. Next to my seat, a boy who’s mop of black hair was all that greeted me. His head was face down on the desk,
After staring at her for a moment, I give a curt nod. “Yuuuup.” I mumble in response to her words, giving a hesitant thumbs up and sliding into my seat next to Thomas. He looks up to me, pulling his head off the desk and shooting me a glare. He’s friendly. I pull out my deck of cards and start to shuffle them, “Sooo, I’m TJ! I don’t know if you remember, I’m the guy who popped in the other day with Nia?” I fan out the cards with a smile, holding them out to him. “Enough about me though! Pick a card, pleaseee!”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Thomas’s glare continues to bore through me, and I respond with an awkward smile. It takes him a minute, instead of picking a card he sets his head back down against the desk. “No.” A deep, hoarse voice responds to me. That Thomas, isn’t he just a sweetheart?
“Well, as tempted as I am to take that for an answer, I’m gonna have to add some sugar on top of my please. What now? More willing, perhaps? Mayhaps the addition of a cherry as well?” I respond with a small chuckle and a smirk. I reach out and poke him with my cards, prodding him to pick one of them. “If you do I’ll show you a magic trick!” Now I’ve revealed my trump card, everyone wants to see a magic trick!
Thomas looks up, and then sits up, pushing himself away from the desk slightly. I get to see his dark brown eyes, and the huge bags under his eyes that stretch across his face like he’s a part of the band KISS. He reaches out one of his pale hands, holding it under the cards. I wave them around with a grin, because I’ve got him now. Then his eyes flicker away from me to the teacher, and he takes back his hand. “After class.” He murmurs indifferently, before slamming his head back against the desk and turning away from me.
“TJ.” Mercury calls out, walking into the classroom. I snort into my hand, unable to stop it when I see his outfit. He’s wearing a jungle green polo, with a red bow tie on top. A baggy, dark brown pair of sweatpants decorate his legs. He walks over to me and takes the free seat to my left.
“Dude…” I snicker again, pointing at his outfit with a smirk unable to be stopped from showing up on my face. “You look like a Christmas tree.” I bring up, pointing at his shirt.
His face lights up redder than his tie, and his blue eyes widen. “What!?” He hisses quietly at me, batting away my hand. “No-what! No! Shut up, this is stylish!” He said something after that, but I’ve been completely distracted by the most incredible thing.
“Mercury…” I murmur, my smirk broadening into a childish grin, “Your silver hair works as a star!”
- - - - - - - -
My cheek still hurts from Mercury's smack as the bell rings that ends the first class. English was never my forte, and when taught by a teacher that looks like a wolf wearing an elderly woman’s skin as a cloak it doesn’t help me all too much. The second the bell rings though, “Thomas! Card, now!” I bring up with a childish smile on my face and equally childish demand. I fan the cards out to him, and he looks apathetically at me. A heavy sigh escapes him, like this is the most taxing thing he’s going to do all day, and he reaches out to the cards.
Mercury watches from over my shoulder, no doubt as curious as I am to figure out what card Thomas is going to pick. Thomas hovers his hand over the cards, and then smacks them out of my hand onto the floor. “No.” He says with a snicker escaping him. He turns around and heads to the door, my eyes still focused on the floor where my cards have scattered all over.
“What a dick.” Mercury murmurs from behind me, almost pushing past me to go after Thomas. My heart basically melts, seeing Mercury move after Thomas on my behalf. I reach out and grab his hand, a smile forming on my face as well. I look up at him, and stick my tongue out playfully.
“Nah! It’s the first time I’ve seen him smile all day. Plus, if you leave, nobody else will help me pick up my cards.” I mention offhandedly, crouching down and getting started on picking up the cards. A moment of silence passes before Mercury sits down next to me and helps me to pick them up. I glance up to him once we’ve finished picking up the cards, “Thanks Mercury.”
“Yeah...Whatever.” He murmurs in response to me, looking away from me and focusing on the door. He gets up and pats the dirt off his pants, before holding a hand out to me. “We’re going to be late, let’s go.” I take his hand and stand up, before realizing something a little sad. He took off his bow tie.
“Did….Did I bully you into taking off your bow tie?” I ask with a disbelieving smile plastered onto my face. He doesn’t even look back at me, and just pushes me back onto the ground.
“I take it back, you’re going to be late.” He responds to me, headings through the doors of the class. I laugh before getting up and chasing after him, the only thing serving as a reminder of this morning was the icy glare Mrs. Kraus sent after me as I left.
Honestly I have no idea what we went over in the second class. Something about math, probably. I mean that was the topic, but letters got involved in the equations and I just zoned out at that point. Besides, I was so excited for period three that it wouldn’t have mattered even if math was comprehensible.
Walking with Mercury through the halls of the first floor towards the elevator, I decided to ask him, “What do we go over in our Emblem class? If each person is unique, what could a teacher show us?”
Mercury gives me an interesting look, “Weird.” He mumbles to himself, before shaking his head and answering my question. “Yeah, uh, it depends really. Sometimes you can use it to practice using your Emblem. Sometimes you’ll study your past life, or dangerous Emblems other countries have. Learning to abuse the weakness of certain Emblems and that stuff.”
“Wait what was that?”
“Abusing the weaknesses other Emblems have.”
“No no, before that.”
“The uh…” Mercury furrows his eyebrows as we enter the elevator with a group of other students. “The past life things?” He asks me, as though that wasn’t obviously what I was asking about.
“Yes, the past life thing!”
“Jesus, look TJ just calm your tits ok? The teacher would love to talk with you about it, good things come to those who wait and all that.” Mercury claims, seeming a touch annoyed. I just don’t think he knows. The elevator doors open up and let us out, me and Mercury heading in a beeline to the end of the third floor. Facing us are the large black doors labeled ‘Professor Delta’. Delta...I looked over at Mercury, Mercury Theta. There’s some correlation there, I can’t quite put my finger on it though. “Just...Follow my lead here.” He murmurs to me, opening the doors and walking into the classroom.
I enter the room after him. It’s massive, and basically an auditorium. There’s a stage at the end of the class, and we’ve entered at the highest point of the room with a downward slope towards the stage. There are desks that line the room facing towards the stage, and there’s a huge ornamental desk on the stage. A woman with curly black hair and brown skin lies down in a chair behind it, her eyes are shut. I think she’s snoring. Nia and TJ are both sitting to the left of us, Nia in the front row and Thomas sitting in the back much closer to us. Mercury tsks before putting his hands in his pockets as he heads to the right. I follow him after a moment, looking around the room. It’s made of super old stone that has moss growing in the upper segments. “Mercury…” I whisper to him, my voice echoing throughout the room and bouncing back at me. “Is she Professor Delta?” I ask him, gesturing to the woman on stage.
He nods in response, “Yeah. She’ll call you to grab your book in a minute, so take your seat before you do.” Mercury responds to me while taking a seat. He gestures to an empty one on his right, looking up at me with his icy blue eyes. With a bright smile I take my seat, still giddy about the rest of the class.
“No...We can’t….” The professor murmurs in her sleep, twitching on the chair. I look over to Mercury who acts as though this is totally normal, reaching into his desk and pulling out a thick book.
I reach into my own desk following his lead, and find nothing in mine. Oh, wait, ouch, I lied. I pull back my hand and see a spider. I inhale through my nose, with my finger starting the throb. “...Owwwwwwwww…” I complain to myself, flicking the spider off of my finger and shaking my hand. I look at my hand, and my finger starts to swell up a little bit...Which is weird. This is a normal spider, right? I look over to where the spider crawled off too and examine it closer. “Oh. What?” I murmur to myself, noting a red hourglass on the bottom of the spider. I look back at my finger nervously, but the swelling is already starting to fade. My finger looks almost normal again, and it’s rapidly approaching that coveted normal status. “Oh. What?” I exclaim to myself, my finger completely normal now. I smile brightly, “Mercury!” I call out, kicking out at his leg.
“What?” He hisses back at me, seemingly a little annoyed.
“Dude, I just got bit by a black widow. Check it out.” I show him my finger, which is completely normal except for a single little white dot. “It’s totally fine! The shots are so cool…” I mention, looking at my own finger and in doing so missing the teacher waking up.
“....Do we have our new student, Jay Jeremy Jones?” I hear the teacher call out. I blink and stand up, raising a hand.
“Yeah! I’m here!” I exclaim, looking down at the teacher. She nods and writes something down, her brown eyes flickering down from me to the attendance chart. Before she can move on, I vault over my desk and jog up to her. I have a grin on my face as I hold out my deck of cards to her, not paying attention to the weird looks I get as I walk past the other students, “Could you pick a card? Any card!” I ask of the professor, fanning out the cards. She looks back to me with a small smile showing up on her face. She’s around my height, so she doesn’t have to reach up or down to pick out a card.
“Alright.” She says, holding the card and raising an eyebrow. “And now…”
“Oh! Yeah.” I summon it back into my hand, the card spinning out of Professor Delta’s hand and back into mine. “Woah...The 5 of diamonds. How interesting!” I exclaim, before I’m pulled backwards by an unknown force and start being dragged back up the room. “Blegh, agh, wait!” I reach to the collar of my shirt, trying to stop it from choking me out. I turn around and see Mercury dragging me back to my seat with a blush on his cheeks.
“You. Are such. A fucking idiot.” He snarls at me, throwing me back into my seat and taking his own. He buries his face on his hands and I can hear a few chuckles still spreading through the classroom. “I literally took my attention off you for a second. I grabbed my book, and went back to where I left off. In that timespan, you have given me a near death experience from embarrassment.” He laments, not to me directly but more so just throwing it out there.
The teacher continues on with attendance, and I flick the 5 of diamonds into the air, catching it back in the rest of the deck. “It’s not that bad! Plus, don’t be jealous. She just got the 5 of diamonds, your jack of spades is way cooler!” I respond to him, figuring he needs a little booster. The blush on his face still hasn’t faded, and with a grin I turn back to professor Delta and listen to her rattle off the names on the attendance sheet. I think it’s really cool how I can just do one thing, and all of a sudden everybody in class takes a glance at me and starts whispering to their friends. I’m a conversation starter! I can’t help but smile thinking about that.
- - - - - - - -
“...Now, in conclusion, when facing an enemy that has an unknown Emblem what’s the first course of action?” Professor Delta asks the class, peering across the room.
Mercury sighs with his hand basically morphing into his face, murmuring, “Run away.” Quietly, as though he hasn’t realized he’s said it. After I chuckle at his response, he kicks me under the desk.
“You retreat, gathering reinforcements, and then you try to achieve long distance reconnaisence until you discover their Emblem.” Nia calls out, standing up and crossing her arms with a stoic expression on that stupid pretty little face of hers. “After all, when facing an enemy that you’re unaware of, you should always assume the worst. They may know about your Emblem, and if they do you're instantly at a disadvantage. Since their Emblem may be long range, trying to avoid detection and evacuate the premises is the correct course of action.” She says, before sitting down with a self-satisfied little smirk. She’s unbearable!
“A picturesque answer Ms. Cadmium. With that, class is dismissed. Jay, if you wouldn’t mind coming to see me?” The teacher announces, the bell ringing as she’s calling out my name. I sigh and get up, feeling like a salmon as I push my way through the cavalcade of students that are exiting class. I’m pushed back abruptly, falling onto my butt with a smack.
“Thank you Nia.” I murmur, standing back up as a few students chuckle at me and Nia barrels through the other students. I push past them as well and get to Mrs. Delta. “What’s up professor?” I ask with a small smile. It’s not that I’m nervous, it’s just that earlier today the other professors really proved they’re a little bit too caring. Not sure if that’s the exception or the rule.
Mrs. Delta shuffles around the table, “Ah, well. Your book.” She says casually, her eyes seeming to be half shut. “You are new here, so in case you didn’t know let me elaborate.” She mentions while handing me the book. It feels like she’s not looking at me, even though her eyes are meeting my own. “There have been five users of your Emblem who have lived here, and kept data and track of your Emblem. They’re your predecessors. Nobody else reads these books. Your homework today isn’t to study Emblems, instead you need to write your introduction in the book. For the next user. I’m sure you’ll understand what to do. Don’t discuss anything that you read in the book with anybody else, it’s sacred to you and those that share your Emblem. Future and the past.”
I gulp at the words that she says so casually to me, and stare down at the book. It’s old, and bound in coarse leather with a tight chain that keeps the book shut. There’s a silver key already in the lock that holds the chain, and there’s a symbol in black ink on the front page of the book. It’s my mark. The disintegrating wings on a butterfly. The book can’t be heavier than two pounds, but it seems to weigh so much that it’s hard to hold. “Oh...Yeah.” I murmur quietly, with a nervous grin on my face as I take a step backwards. “Thank you.” I call out to Professor Delta, before heading out into the hallway.