Before we got here, you could only smell food. Hear the subtle Jazz music Jackson–the house’s owner–had put on to help him focus.

Now both the house and the man were in ruins. Furniture torn to pieces, the TV cracked with the sound of white noise and his deep breaths filling the room. He was bleeding from his leg. A piece of glass was stuck there, courtesy of my partner in crime–Sophie.

“Please, Jacob.” He was heaving, looking me in the eyes. “We’re friends. You’re not a murderer.”

I placed my bare hand on his chest. All but my pinky touching him. The first time I did a job like this, I was barely holding back tears. I didn't feel anything now,.

Sophie’s breath tickled my ear.

“Don’t forget his wife works with the Houses of Doom. Killing him will draw her out. And if we take her out, the rest of the dominos will soon follow.”

“Like you have any right to talk about villains, you bi-”

“Enough. Both of you.” I looked down at my hand. “I’m sorry, Jackson. I don’t want to do this, but…”

I put the last finger down. Now, every other noise was drowned out by Jackson’s screams.

And, as much as I hated to admit it, a smile found its way onto my face.

I took a deep breath.

The smell of blood now filled the air.

I closed my eyes.

And when I opened them, I was no longer in the house.

I was standing in the middle of a field in front of a raised platform. I was just one in a large crowd. It took me a bit to orient myself. To remember when and when I was and what was happening.

I wasn’t Jacob.

I was Alex.

I was studying to be a hero in a world of heroes. Heroes that were endlessly fighting against a horde of villains and natural disasters. And there was one that had stood out among the rest.

Alpha Surge. Yes, he was the reason we were there.

I smiled slightly, thinking about him. He had inspired me–and not just because of his strength. But his kindness, his empathy.

I looked at the crowd around me. Some dressed fancily, some casually. All in black. Muttering among themselves.

I was among those that weren’t wearing a suit. I couldn’t. They always felt like they were choking me, and ever since the incident with Paragon, it was all just too much. Still, I was wearing a black shirt with a black jacket and black pants.

We had all gathered to meet the new dean of Atlantis Academy. But we had also gathered to honor the memory of a man that had held up the world.

It was my second year in Atlantis.

And it had started with the death of Alpha Surge.

A cold arm wrapped around my left side, and a strong hand squeezed my right shoulder.

Birgit and Ivan. My girlfriend and best friend. The two closest people I had.

Ivan was dressed in a suit. I never thought I’d see the day. He’d always been smirking and smiling as far as I remembered him. And today was no different. But it was a more wistful smile. Today, it was forced on his face.

“We know one thing for sure,” he said. “He’s in heaven.”

“Really?” said Birgit, a challenge in her voice. “Didn’t peg you for the religious type.”

“I’m not.” He shrugged. “There’s a saying in my country–Na muci se poznaju junaci. Means that true heroes show themselves in the deepest trouble. And there weren’t many heroes as real as Alpha Surge. I think that, how do you say, heaven formed to welcome him.”

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“Helvede, that’s corny.” Birgit chuckled. “And I like it. You’ve all completely ruined me.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Hell, I could barely keep the tears from streaming down my face. Because I had met him. I had met Alpha Surge and I’d known him. Known that he was all that he was hyped up to be. And even more than that.

If this had happened last year, then I wouldn’t be able to face it. I would probably have already ran away.

It was a small thing, but I was proud I didn’t.

“Alright, you lot!” was heard all across the field. I looked up at the source of the voice. “Today the world mourns, but it does not stop. A new year starts at Atlantis and we got a new dean to go along with it. So get to clapping your hands for Professor Phillip Knightley!”

We clapped and a sharply dressed man came out to the top of the platform that the rest of the professors were at. Unlike everyone else, he was wearing a dark red suit with a blue tie.

He looked like a regular middle aged man. Gray and receding hair, clean shaven, and dark eyes that scanned the whole field. He was smiling too. A small smile, but it was there.

“I understand that the last year was a difficult one,” he said. “I also understand that Alpha Surge’s death weighs on our world. But he fell fighting. And we must honor that. We must persevere. Right here is where the Inter-School tournament was going to be held. Where an army of villains invaded. But we shall not give up.

“I studied in the Heroic Academy of Britain and Ireland. I taught there until last year but I gave it all up and transferred here. And I did so for a single reason: the Inter School Tournament. A shorter version shall transpire this year. To show the growing threat of villainy that we are not to be trifled with. That we shall honor our hero’s memory and push the villains back to the shadows in which they belong!”

His voice was booming across the field, echoing in a way I couldn’t properly describe. It felt like he was talking into my very soul. It must have been some sort of power. It didn’t make sense otherwise.

He wasn’t like Charles. He was very, very different.

The rest of his speech was normal stuff. Just wishing us all good luck, and ensuring that he wouldn’t ‘make the same mistakes the previous leadership did’. But by that point, I’d already tapped out.

I didn’t really care about Philip Knightley. I wanted to celebrate Alpha Surge’s memory, although that looked like it had fallen by the wayside the more the new dean talked.

Instead I made my way back to my dorm. Or at least, I started to.

A few people had already left by that time. I was almost at the mansion when I heard a few grunts. And sure enough, two guys were fighting next to it. Well, fighting was a strong word.

One of them–bigger, tanned–had bones growing out of his body, coving his right arm. Armor that he used to hit and hit and hit the other one. It was another guy, dark skinned with his hair tied up in a bun.

He was dodging and defending, using a blue shield on his forearm.

Hit. Block. Hit. Block. The shield would break, and the smaller guy’s face would be smashed in. Rinse and repeat. Blood dripped from his nose and face. His black T-Shirt started to turn red but the other guy laughed and backed away.

“Again!” he yelled, almost cartoonishly loud. The bones covering his arm grew even more, looking less and less like armor and more like a mace.

And the gloves were off.

In my previous life, I’d been an assassin. I knew how to hide and approach people without them noticing me. But Alpha Surge died, I had a lot of tension inside me. And the big guy seemed like a great target.

So I shouted at him, yelling out the worst swear words the Greek language had. He turned to me, eyes wide, and tried to hit me. As he swung, he swore in Greek too.

“You’re giving us all a bad reputation,” I said to him, switching to the language.

Attack. Dodge. Attack. He was a first year, I could tell. His swings were too wide, his moves too sluggish. So sidestepping his attacks was easy, and not even that tiring.

All I needed was an opening. An opening that he gave all too soon. He stumbled, not falling, but losing his balance long enough for me to reach out and put my hand on his arm. Snap.

Bones became dust. Blood shot out of his arm as he tripped backward. Again he didn’t fall–I had to hand it to him, he had decent balance–but my other hand shot into his face. All but my pinky touching it.

“One move and you’re dead,” I said, hissing at him. “So, please, move.”

Suddenly, it wasn’t his face I was cupping. It was Jackson. And we were back in the house.

I flinched back. He was looking at me, scared.

There were a hundred ways I could have taken him down. And I went with this.

He ran away. I turned to his victim. He couldn’t even get up and he was crawling away from me.

I closed my eyes.

Deep breath.

“You’re not a monster,” I said under my breath. “You’re not a monster.”

I wasn’t Jacob.

I was Alex.

I put my gloves back on. It wasn’t easy. During the second semester, it had gotten more and more difficult. Separating my two lives. There weren’t any nightmares thankfully, but there was confusion. Sometimes there was even tension. Tension I didn’t know how to get rid of. I thought that would all be over when I accepted Jacob's life into mine. Clearly, I had been wrong.

But it didn’t matter now.

I turned to the guy that was crawling away from me.

Now I had to help someone.