I was petrified. Today, back to school... I realized that I was a dragon, probably the last one on earth and still, as a human.

But I had signs. The base of my nails were blackening and I felt my teeth being pushed by others. Normally, I would have my adult teeth now but I could feel them growing underneath.

I wanted to see a doctor but I was also terrified of what they would tell me. Also my saliva was really acidic and one time I spit on the ground and the stone melted underneath! like the monsters in "Aliens", the old cult movie.

Also, I had pecs for a girl and every day, I looked more and more like an avid weightlifter.

I had Bishop's number but I didn't know what to say to him. I was afraid... What if we were being watched?

Here, there were still phone booths that had all disappeared in Europe.

This was my chance, but we would know where it came from! There was roaming possible and I found a more expensive system but it consists in entering a number to call the service, making a code for a random country and then the real phone number, if it still existed. 16 years is a long time for a mobile number but you never know. I'll call his house at night... I might have better luck if it's an old number.

In one hour, they will drive me to school and then the boat bus will come to pick me up like all the other kids in the village. The villages were along the river and it was navigable for small boats.

I dialed the number and then I heard the Bishop's number being dialed. Mom was going to kill me for the cost but it was too important for me.

I could hear the bell ringing. The number still existed.

Then I heard breathing.

"Who are you people? Do you know it's 2:00 in the morning? Don't you know how to respect the hours of sleep? Shit, those advertisers! "

He heard "HELP" just before he hung up and had the reflex to hold back his arm.

"What's going on? Ah... you're a child!"

"Professor Bishop? Is that you? "

"There is no Professor Bishop... He died in the cataclysm. I am his brother..."

"Ahhh, I'm lost... You have the same voice... Help.... Help me!"

"The teacher was being bugged and it is dangerous to try to contact him... I'm sorry. But there's nothing I can do for you."

"I'm sorry about "

The professor tensed up.

He said, "By the darkness," and hung up.

He began to cry and Bichnin came behind him to console him.

"Who is it? My love? Who was it?"

"A ghost... a child calling for help..."

Bichnin: "Why did you hang up the phone so abruptly?"

"With computers, you can find everything and spy. You know, Viseron and his infernal clique that is in the government now... He mustn't let it fall on the child."

Bichnine "A child calls for help and you hang up?"

Bishop: "He's one of 'em, I'm sure of it." Shhh, someone might hear us."

"You're getting old and paranoid now."

"Doing nothing is also acting... but if this is one of them and not some twisted plan by those time cops, I've done all I can do before and now I have only one thing left to do: survive with you and be there. I'm just an old man with a cane and an old chair."

Bichnine realized in hindsight that Bishop had done the right thing, to protect Poisse from herself.

Pondichery,

He hung up on me. It was him, I remember his breathing and his voice.

Why did he abandon me?

Then "by the darkness???" it was an expletive. No.. Yes, Marc and the darkness. I was a snake too. The darkness was accessible to me.

What if I prayed to Tiamat?

No, she is dead! And Blanche, the white head was in another world, with the Aegis and my body probably.

But I was trying to pray to the evil goddess.

I was dying of fear, being human, of falling on her. She was known to devour humans, especially bad ones, but I never hurt anyone, yes, under Othar...but I redeemed myself I think....

"SYLVIAAAAAAAA, it's time, it's the big day" shouted mom at the entrance of my house.

I was on the second floor, in my room.

I quickly grabbed my bag and a jacket and ran down the stairs.

"Yes, I'm coming, mom!"

I waved to Brahma and her husband. And I was surprised to see Ankur and Choudari sitting next to me.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Ah, yes, for them too, it was back to school.

Because of the monsoon, it coincided with Easter which ended the vacations. That's how it was in India. The school adapted to the harvest period, especially in the countryside.

We had only 2 seasons here. Monsoon and summer.

On the way to school, I didn't pay attention to my cousins anymore.

I felt that a distance, an invisible wall was being built.

We had too many cultural differences and the children were walking in the direction of their parents and I no longer made any sense.... I was lost with myself.

It was raining today and my tears merged with the dripping water on the back door window.

We had arrived and I came out and Mommy kissed us. Shaikh had his cousins jumping on him but I gave him an Indian salute which he appreciated. He was always afraid that I would tell about the incident of the day before. I had completely forgotten about it. I wasn't the kind of person to blackmail.

The students of several levels were in the courtyard and we took refuge under the courtyard

The students of several levels were in the courtyard and we took refuge under the courtyard [https://img.wattpad.com/fe7b32edc23735bd15aa03fd3bf9aa918c16d468/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f74786e3652555a4b4358437630513d3d2d313030383839353334332e313635386666303265376363313966623237333432313533343939372e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

Then our names were mentioned and we were assigned classes.

There were several Europeans and Indo-Europeans.

Right away, the boys had spotted me. I was beautiful as a human being and rather proud, but now I had like a second personality, in fact, I was myself but with very, very distant memories, I felt, how shall I say, eternal? Not immortal, but it changed my way of seeing things.

I entered my 4th year, finally, I had 3 years left to go to college.

But what had made me dizzy was also all this knowledge that overwhelmed my memory.

So we got to know our teacher, Mr. François, in 4B sciences. A native Frenchman, married to a local Indo-French woman, who also taught History and Geography.

We were all standing, without a sound and we were waiting for the teacher to allow us to sit down.

With my new personality, I found it very dull and boring to death.

"My name is Mr. François. I insist on the formula when you speak to me.

Here, in front of me, I have a fallow forest and you are logs... It is up to you to prove to me that you are worth more than a piece of wood"...

Silence.

No one dared to laugh at the crap he was unpacking.

Unlike in France, education was a sacred privilege and it was unthinkable to provoke a teacher or disrupt the class.

"Sit down!

Then he took attendance.

I felt like I was going back 50 years.

No one dared to leave the shelves and he wrote on the blackboard like a backward man who refused progress.

He was nicknamed the Amish professor, he taught French and literature.

Behind me, Dany, a tall, strong boy with blond hair, with a white fringe, threw a paper ball in my neck and winked at me.

The doorbell pulled us out of our ordeal and while waiting for the next teacher, we had a 10 minute break.

"Hi, my name is Dany! This is my brother Rudy and this is my friend Philippe.

Rudy had crossed blond hair, his face a little shorter, a little like Dr. McCoy in Star Trek and Philippe a dark guy with half-long black hair. He looked like a black ball instead of a head.

They said "Hi!"

"So you're new here?"

I was embarrassed but the memory of Oriharukon erased my hopes of a potential boyfriend. All my life plans had been erased and reset.

Victoria was my goal now.

Then it was Math class.

The teacher gave us a test to evaluate us. This would not count on our grades but to bring us up to speed.

When the test was over, we did some more exercises.

I already knew all this and I was bored to death.

I kept thinking about Bishop's words over and over again... The shadows, the darkness... But yes, how stupid I am, but I'm human...

I'm going to try anyway.

I put my fingers in the closed pencil box and I thought as if I was still a Poisse to sink into it.

I pressed but nothing worked.

Then I pricked myself with the tip of the compass and put the drop of blood in the shadow and my finger went into the pencil box and then my whole hand!

"The labyrinth! it still exists! Perhaps it still connects the dimensions!"

"MRS. SYLVIA, could you stop playing with your pencil box? Since you seem to be bored with my class, take the chalk and give me the following demonstration."

Hard as day one.

I got up and went to the stage and looked at the other boys and they gave me a thumbs up! They supported me.

The teacher obviously had something against the original French, I think.

To his astonishment, I solved the demonstration without any mistakes and answered all his questions.

I excused myself as I went to sit down and the teacher's face was less tense because I had shown that I was studious.

In my head I was thinking only about the labyrinth but I forgot something. Something terrible.

I was questioned once more and then it was lunch break. We had half an hour.

And I put it on a bench in front of the school fountain. I looked at the fishes that innocently swam there.

Then the three boys saw me again, one behind the other sitting next to me and the third leaning against the backrest.

"So you're French? From Lyon?"

I'm further north, from Dijon, but my father works for a computer and sandblasting equipment company and had to move here. He's getting married soon.

"It's pretty cool here. If you want, we can show you around the city and the surrounding area, there's a lot of cool stuff to do that we couldn't do in France."

We talked about our lives briefly and I was happy to have my first friends here.

In the afternoon it was physical education and we had to run in a botanical garden. I broke all the records. The teacher asked me if I didn't want to join a good sports club. In fact, I was good at all sports and particularly good at swimming and running.

Finally, for swimming, I was going to find out.

In the end, the friends asked if I wanted to go with them but I had to ask my mom's permission. I was only 16 years old, well, I could, but I shouldn't irritate Brahma or their family. I shouldn't show that I was an easy girl.

But I was in a hurry to get to my room.

We had dinner with the family and I was questioned by a thousand questions and Shaikh was not happy that on the first day I already had a remark. Finally, on the internet, they could follow my notes and course programs and I had to show that I was capable.

A private high school here was a privilege and I was not to forget that.

Then, in the evening, mom looked at her smartphone and asked if it was me who had made a phone call to a detour company?

We were at the end of the meal.

Rosette: "Sylvia, could you explain to me the price and the reason for this surcharged phone call?"

I wasn't a very good liar, and Mom knew it.

"You know, my nightmares... I contacted someone who knows about it that I found on the internet and I didn't want to be traced and I used a detour number, to remain anonymous."

Rosette thought for a moment.

"Listen, my darling, I know you have anxieties, but don't ruin yourself with charlatans! And what did he say?

Sylvia: "That he was dead and hung up on me!"

We finished the meal but mom and Brahma talked for a long time and I could hear very well, even through the walls.

"Rosette, it's normal that Sylvia eats like that? You don't realize but in addition to the meals, she fishes and eats like a sea lion! And since the incident with the Brahmin, people say that she is possessed by a Garuda. I know that this is nonsense but she should be more careful. The rumors go quickly here in the countryside and sometimes it goes all the way back to the chiefs and bosses."

"Brahma, Sylvia has always been wild like her father. She dressed like him and followed him everywhere, especially hunting. They always made fires in the wilderness and cooked and ate their game before returning home. Most of the time they were no longer hungry and sylvia was very strong because of this. She grew up in the country, and in the forest. All the people were like that 50 years ago in our house. Computers and consoles and girl stuff never really interested her."

"I understand, Rosette, it's true that the culture here is really different and we didn't give her a choice. We uprooted her. I'll try to explain to the neighbors."

"Thank you, Brahma. It's very kind of you. And the return for Ankur and Choudary?....."

Shaikh was in his office, preparing his things and I went in to see a little and take an interest in what he was doing.

"Ah, Sylvia, sit down," inviting me to the chair in front of his mahogany desk.

"I don't understand what happened yesterday. The Brahmin must have smoked too much...". He said you were a snake and there was a snake behind you. You know, cobras are very intelligent, they hunt and have territories they defend and are the only snakes that make a nest. Their venom can kill more than 20 people! And what you did was crazy. I'm mad. But I can't tell your mom. We're getting close to the wedding party and we're busy making preparations and I don't want to tarnish our union with scolding.

Please make an effort not to be noticed anymore. "

Me: "Yes, father-in-law"

Then he took back his papers, obviously important.

When everyone went to bed, I woke up in the dark.

I began to pray to the goddess and say to myself, "I am Poisse. I am Poisse..." on a loop and I imagined the shadows like the water in a swimming pool, and slowly I went into it completely.