I wasn’t a bad kid. I just wanted to enjoy life to its fullest.

Although, my mom, she was a… promiscuous… one. By that, I mean she was a prostitute.

Every day, every night, a new man. At the time, I didn’t understand. I just thought they were friends going to hang out. The yelling throughout the night, I thought they were just wrestling. My mom sounded like she was having fun so I didn’t really care.

“NATHAN! COME DOWN HERE!” My mother would yell for me to come downstairs for whatever she wanted done at that particular moment.

“Yes, mom-” I was cut off by a burning cigarette to my forehead.

“AHHHHHHHHH!” I screamed and grabbed my forehead with my hands. Tears were rolling down my eyes. The tears had blurred my mom’s face but she looked happy and her laugh was hearty so I wasn’t too worried about my pain as long as she was happy.

At the time, nothing mattered more to me than her happiness.

Sometimes, the men she’d bring over would want to go out back and spend a little time together.

That would usually involve them taking out their frustrations and anger on me, like mom does. I never thought much of it but now that I’m older, it was just their way of beating up someone that couldn’t really put up much of a fight.

Edmond, a skinny pale boy who looked younger than the ones she brought back, invited me out back to train.

He wasn’t too intimidating so I thought I could take him.

Heavy right, lightning fast jabs, heavy left, uppercut, tornado kicks, he pulled out all the stops on a little boy.

Usually, I’d be mad but I couldn’t help but watch in awe as he soared through the air like a butterfly and moved as fast as a cheetah.

I wiped the blood off my face as he extended his hand down to me. I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up with surprising strength. He looked at me and smiled.

“You’re pretty tough for your age,” he said, his country accent hanging onto every word he uttered.

“Yeah, I hear that a lot,” I grabbed my shirt and put it over my tank top.

“You do this often?” He offered me a cigarette.

“Yeah, sometimes, the bad men that my mom brings home wanna fight me and I ain’t too sure why,” I replied, trying to copy his accent. I shook my head side to side.

He seemed to respect that decision and put the pack of cigarettes back in his pocket.

“I brought you out ‘ere to train, like I said. In this country, you gon’ need to learn how to fight with your fists as much as you would with your magic. What happens when you run outta mana? You just stand there and let ‘em swing on ya’ like a bitch? NO. You always fight back until you can’t no more.”

I looked at him with a spark, the beginning of the fire that burned for the thrill of combat, lit inside of me.

He may not be the scariest looking man I’ve ever seen but he was definitely the toughest.

“Now, lemme properly introduce myself. I’m Edmond Tenebris.”

“I’m Nathan Daydane,” I looked at him with admiration and tenacity.

He gave me a light punch on the shoulder.

“That’s the spirit, kid. Let’s get inside.”

I didn’t see Edmond much after that. I’m assuming my mom wasn’t wrestling with him anymore even though he’s great at it.

He taught me how to throw a proper punch, kick, all of the good stuff, even how to suplex people.

I often hid my head at school because the first time someone saw them at my old school, they called me “Beehive” for the entire school year. That was because of the burns mom put on my forehead from the cigarettes.

I walked down the hallway with my hands in pockets and my hood up. I didn’t like the kids here nor the teachers so I tried my best to keep to myself. Some kids would always pester me but nothing too serious. Or at least up until now.

“HEY, BEEHIVE!” The boy yelled at me.

I slowly turned around, panic spread across my face.

How did they know that name?

“I moved here last week. I remember that weird face AND those weird scars,” he came up to me and tried to move my hood.

I smacked his hand away.

“Oh, you think you’re tough now? I used to beat you up everyday a year ago,” he walked

back up to me and put his hands around the top of the hood again. I brought my fist back and launched it upwards right at his jaw. The crunch it made on impact is something I will never forget.

It sounded like crushing a jawbreaker.

He doubled over and started spewing out blood. His friends behind him started

preparing spells.

“Lightning Magic: Electro Ball!” It was weak and slow. I ran towards her and socked her right in the face.

She fell, unconscious.

They stopped preparing their spells and lifted their hands up into fists.

I got smacked in the back of the head. I spun my fist backwards and connected with something with a deafening smack. A male student crumpled to the ground clenching his jaw.

My body fought on instinct. The female student in front of me swung with a wide right hook. I ducked under her fist and boxed her up close. I threw multiple jabs into her stomach and ended it with a right hook to the face; my signature.

A larger student came out from behind them.

He cracked his knuckles.

“They gave me snacks to kick your ass,” he said, his voice deep for a kid who was probably 13 years old.

“All it took was some snacks?” I snickered as he put his hands into a double ax handle. I sprung backwards. ]

He brought his attack where I was standing. The concrete had been shattered.

The way the subtle blue glow was surrounding his fist. He’s using strength enhancement magic.

I have to stay away from him.

Reason being I’ve never received formal training as to how to use my magic. He didn’t know what he was doing and neither did I.

He brought his fists down again. I jumped and double kicked him in the face. He grabbed me by the foot and threw me into the locker.

I guess I was high on adrenaline because that did not phase me one bit.

Imagine walking into a school and seeing grade schoolers destroy the entire school.

I ran right back. I jumped in the air and grabbed his face and brought my knee right into his nose. His eyes were whited over as he threw his head back with blood spewing out of his nose.

The teachers finally came running out as his body slumped against the ground.

“Did you kill him?” The teachers asked, panicking.

“No,” I scratched my head, “I don’t think so.”

“You’re coming with us,” the teachers brought me to the detention room with my hands zip tied around my back.

I, surprisingly, couldn’t break out of these.

The detention room was a gray room, with a black board at the front and 3 rows of 6 desks.

You were really only ever brought here if you really messed up. The principal came in.

“You know that you really messed up? You severely injured multiple students and their hospital bills will be sent to your mother,” he bluntly stated.

Those words were like bullets. We struggled as is and now I just piled those onto her. What am I gonna do?

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked.

“Unless you have a job or some money laying around then no,” he grabbed his papers and straightened them up by tapping them on the desk. His pager paged him. He walked away for a bit while I sat there reflecting on my actions. I rubbed my hand across the burns on my forehead.

He came back about 15 minutes later.

“Sorry about that, important business,” he spread the papers out across the desk.

“These are the reports of what injuries the students sustained, the worst of them being the older student. The red around his jaw indicates a broken jaw,” he grabbed his pen and circled around it, “which is the common denominator between these students. They all have broken jaws. However, you also broke his nose and fractured his cheekbone.”

My mind flash backed to the double kick to his face and when my knee struck him right in the nose.

“The bad news is that you made first contact. Or well, attempted and connected but same thing. Your punishment will be decided in the following days. I hope you think about your actions and learn from them.”

Mom never came back to get me which was weird because even when she was drunk or high, she came by to get me from school.

By the time I got home, it was already dark outside.

My face distorted into one of anger, rage, and worry as I spotted the broken window next to the front door. I ran inside as quickly as I could.

“MOM!” I screamed.

“MOMMMM!” I shouted again.

“I can hear you,” she walked in from the kitchen and stood in the doorway.

“Did you see the broken window in the living room?” I asked.

“What broken window-”

A shadowy figure appeared behind her.

“MOVE!” I ran towards her, time slowing down as the knife pierced through her heart from her back.

I stopped as my mom’s lifeless body fell to the ground. I slumped to the ground and held her head.

“Mom. Please wake up. I know you’re still here. Mom, please. I can’t live without you…” I began crying, the tears didn’t stop for hours.

The neighbors must’ve heard me and came over. They called the authorities and they arrived within the first 10 minutes of that call.

They attempted to remove me from next to my mom saying things like, “you shouldn’t see this” and “this is too much for you right now” but I don’t care. I couldn’t focus on anything other than finding out who did this.

“GET OFF OF ME!” I punched the officer in the face while I flailed around. The officer pulled me off of my mom and pinned me to the ground.

“Now, this is for your own safety. I promise.” He left me there, applying little pressure but I couldn’t bring myself to move as the tears came out. I couldn’t stop them. It was like a dam had burst and all of that water poured through.

I fell asleep after a while and they put me in my bed. I woke up, thinking that was just a bad dream.

I walked downstairs and saw the caution tape around where they outlined her body with white tape. Tears rolled down my face as I grabbed the orange juice and poured myself a cup. I sat at the table, reflecting on the memories of mom and I sitting here. Her with her newspaper and cigarette, me with my legos and bacon and eggs that I had just freshly prepared. Now that I think about it, I didn’t do much with my mom. I still loved her regardless but it was the thought fresh on my mind as of right now.

“‘Sup, kid.” A country accent had broken through the silence.

“Hey, Mr. Tenebris,” I wiped the snot and tears away.

“It’s alright to cry. Well, no it ain’t but sometimes you need to, you know?” He tried to relate to me.

“Yeah, sure,” I stared blankly.

“Death is a slow burn. You think you’re sufferin’ now, just wait till 2 weeks from now. It’s really gonna hit ya,” He lightly punched me on the shoulder.

“But that’s not why I’m here.”

His expression grew serious and grim.

“I have intel on the man who killed your mom,” He scooted closer and pulled out the folder from his bag.

“This man, his name is Vernon Newsmith. He’s a wanted murderer in the country of Ebren and 15 states here in Declan,” he handed the folder to me.

The mugshot was of a man with a dark, gloomy expression. He held the placard with his name, date of birth, booking ID, and weight. His body was muscular, like a bodybuilder, his veins popped out from his forearms and his neck. He had a shiny bald head with a tattoo of a skull with an eerie smile across the front of his neck.

“This is the man who killed my mother?” I asked him.

“Would I lie to you about this? I loved your mother. Well, as much service as she gave me, anyone would love her..”

“That’s so gross,” I cut him off.

“How do you know it’s him?” I questioned.

“His wife says he left the house an hour before she was killed. Surprise, his house is an hour away from yours. Must’ve been about that fight at school. Maybe that was his kid that you beat the shit out of?”

“He’d kill my mom over a broken jaw?”

“Probably, people in the assassin business are ruthless. You can leave the assassin's life behind but it won’t leave you.”

I stared at the mugshot with hatred. Disgust. Anger.

I needed to kill him. This man stole my mom from me.

“Edmond, can you teach me?” I turned and looked him in the eyes.

“Me? Oh, no, but I have someone who can,” he ushered me to follow him as he swung his keys around his finger.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

After a while, we made it to a decent sized suburban home. The house resembled all of the other ones around it. White with a little of blue on it. Edmond knocked on the door twice. A man wearing a white robe and nothing else opened the door.

“Is this the boy?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Edmond responded.

“The last contestant?” Edmond whispered to the man.

“Yeah, that makes 12.”

Large burly men hopped out of the black suv that was parked outside the house. They had a rag and covered my mouth. It had some sort of inhalant on it as when I tried to breathe, I felt that my throat had closed shut. My eyes darted around until I landed on Edmond and the man. He handed Edmond a fat wad of cash before Edmond left.

He leaned over and whispered,

“Don’t trust anyone,”

My eyes closed as I couldn’t keep them open any longer.

“Wow, he put up a good fight but that’s enough playing around. Put him in the car.”

After however long I was knocked out, I woke up to a solid white room. I looked around and saw other doors. I tried to stand up. The chains around my legs brought me back down to the floor.

“No, no, no. You can’t leave! You’re the last contestant,” a voice said over the intercom.

“WELCOME, EVERYONE! TO THE WORST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE!”

The doors hissed as they opened.

“You can’t move just yet but I have opened the doors for you to get a good look at your opponents. You’re all here because you’re the offspring to the filthy prostitutes that my son had slept with. It isn’t your fault your moms couldn’t keep their legs shut. However, it is THEIR fault you’re here.”

People in solid black jackets and navy blue cargo pants and helmets covering their face approached the door and laid down a piece of paper.

“This is an agreement that each and every one of your mothers had signed that relinquished custody of you all to me for a lump sum of cash. ONE, AND ONLY ONE, of you will be my apprentice. I have connections, money… Power. You all have something you need. Whether that be helping your family, getting famous and rich yourselves. Or revenge. I am your way of achieving that.”

Everyone’s eyes lit up in intrigue. No one cared that they were brought here against their will. It was a brutal free for all for the power that this man carried.

“I will now be unlocking the chains around your feet. You will NOT fight until permitted. Or I swear, you will die right where you stand.”

The chains clicked as they slid down my ankles.

“YEAH, RIGHT!” A young boy began to chant a spell, “WIND MAGIC-”

His voice was cut off as the restraints started closing in around his neck. They kept clicking inwards as he was struggling to breathe. His eye sockets were bulging out as he clawed at his neck. His head exploded in a rain of sanguine. Everyone screamed, including me.

“RELAX!” The man shouted over the intercom.

Everyone calmed down a little but no one could get over what we just saw like that.

“As long as you obey orders then that won’t happen to you. Now please follow the arrows.”

The floor lit up with arrows flashing to the door down the hall to the left. This was all way too much for a little competition. We followed the guide down the hallway and past the heavy steel door. A lone crystal orb was in the middle of the room on a pedestal.

“Line up. You will each put your hand on the orb to figure out your attribute,” the coarse voice announced.

Each kid placed their hand on the orb. We waited as everyone was interested in seeing their magic attribute.

“You know kids, you can learn more than one magic. It’s entirely possible to learn more than one type. It’s difficult but possible.”

It was finally my turn. I placed my hand on the crystal orb. It was smooth and cold. The orb began changing colors until it landed on a silver color.

“That’s a first.” The voice muttered.

“What is it?” I asked.

“We’ll let you know when you’re all separated. NOW, EVERYONE HEAD BACK TO YOUR ROOM. CURFEW IS 10:00 PM, YOU WILL BE IN YOUR ROOMS AND LIGHTS OUT IS 12:00 AM! IF YOU ARE FOUND TO BE DISOBEYING THE RULES THEN YOU WILL BE PROPERLY PUNISHED.”

The boy was still fresh on everyone’s mind as they scurried into their rooms.

The lights cut off as we each headed to our rooms. There were 6 boys and 5 girls in this weird place. There were 7 boys but you know what happened.

The girls were kinda cute but I don’t wanna do anything that would hurt my chances at this thing. Well, he did say that we could be friends if we wanted to.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

“WAKE UP!” The intercom crackled to life.

“Today, you will be given information about your attribute from yesterday,” the guards handed out more papers.

“Thank you,” I said to the guard.

They walked away and stood back against the wall.

I looked at the paper.

“NATHAN DAYDANE: MAGNETIC MAGIC”

That’s it?

We were all assigned teachers and for the following 4 months, we were taught how to control our magic. The rest of the students had grown close besides me.

I didn’t forget why we’re doing this and I don’t plan to forget it.

“Hey, Nathan, are you just gonna sit over there and be gloomy or you gonna join us today?” Amaya asked. Amaya was popular amongst what little people were here. Her dark blue hair rested on her shoulders as she had to push it off of her eyes when she looked at me. Her tan skin was glowing underneath the lights that were in the classroom.

I laid my head down.

“ He’s such a weirdo,” A girl with brunette hair and the same all white uniform that we all had, turned to Amaya. Her hair was much longer going to the middle of her back; it was a weird cotton candy pink color. She told us her name was Iwa or she told them; I just so happened to hear.

“Why do you keep trying, Amaya? He’s not going to talk to us so it doesn’t matter. ” Iwa said, twirling her hair.

“Yeah, you should stop being so nice,” Irwin replied.

Irwin was an older boy, looked to be around 12 or 13, he had a buzzcut that looked like he did it in the dark. He was more muscular than what’d you expect but I heard he had a military family.

I got up and walked over to Irwin and Iwa.

I leaned down and stared at both of them.

“How about you two,” I looked back and forth to the two of them, “go screw yourselves?”

“That is enough, Daydane,” Ms. Maddox walked in and smacked her ruler down on her desk.

“This is your last day of classes,” she explained.

Ms. Maddox was kind of like a homeroom teacher, she explained everything to us before we got out and actually went to the other teacher’s classrooms. This place was huge and had different facilities for just the 12 of us. This man must actually be loaded.

“Good luck and be prepared, kids,” she waved us away.

Classes went by without a hitch. Today, Mr. Lefono taught me how to use Magnetic Healing since it was the hardest thing and the only thing I haven’t been able to use since we started training.

“Are you ready for the announcement?” Mr. Lefono whispered to me.

“What announcement?” I replied.

“Nobody told you? For good reason, probably,” he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“ANYWAYS! It seems like you’re finally starting to get the hang of this,” He stopped and looked at me.

“Do you actually think that this will change anything? All the money, the power? You just lost your mom. You lost any chance at a childhood that you ever had by being here,” he continued.

“No, Vernon Newsmith ruined my life. I don’t think there’s any way that I could ever go back to how I was. I will wring his neck if that is the LAST thing I do. I will hunt down his bloodline,” I looked down.

“I see.”

Class continued on until 5 o'clock at night. This facility was like a school, it had the bells, the intercom, the classrooms, everything like it.

The bell rang which indicated the end of class.

“Everyone, please move to the main lobby,” the intercom instructed.

We all got into our neat little single file line and followed the guard down the hallway. He brought us to where the other students would hang out. I, often, trained after class too in the training rooms down the hall from the lobby.

“WELCOME! I have a little surprise for you. Today marked the end of the classes.”

The 11 other students whooped and hollered. I had a bad feeling as to what was to come.

“All of you did exceptionally well and I see you’ve made friends. HOWEVER! That just makes this harder to say. You, as of now, are all opponents! I have removed all of the furniture, your collars, and everything that was in the facility. This is now a graveyard for all but that lucky someone. Only one of you will survive. With that, I bid you adu!” The intercom clicked as he hung up.

We all looked around at each other.

“We’re seriously not going to KILL each other, are we?”

“Magnetic Pulse!”

I aimed my hand at Irwin and sent him flying into the steel walls.

“DUDE, WHAT THE HELL?!” Iwa yelled.

Irwin wasn’t dead just yet but he was pretty close.

“Magnetic Construct: SWORD!”

I grabbed the magnetic field that surrounded me. I began crushing it, like I was molding it.

Think of how diamonds are made. Eventually, I made a sword.

Anything is possible with magic.

It wasn’t a pretty sword but it would probably get the job done.

Irwin was still down, coughing up blood. I darted over to him and jabbed the sword through his heart. He laid down and stopped coughing as the blood began to pool around him.

Amaya started puking and Iwa was crying. The other students looked away in disgust.

Iwa eventually stopped crying and turned on me.

“YOU’RE DEAD, NATHAN! ICE LANCE!” She chanted as a lance made from ice appeared in her hands.

“Seriously? No spells? Just a weapon?”

“I DON’T NEED SPELLS TO BEAT YOU!”

She swung the lance around before we finally ran towards each other. She swung the lance low to the ground, trying to sweep my legs. I jumped over it and landed a double kick to her face. She spit out the blood before jabbing the lance towards my heart. I couldn’t react in time to fully dodge the blow so I redirected it into my shoulder in order to avoid a fatal blow.

“Enough of this. Magnetic Crush!”

I began closing my hands, her head got smaller and smaller until POP!

“Next,” those words came from a place of revenge. A place where I needed to kill the man who killed my mother.

“WHY? WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS?!” Amaya screamed. She was balled up on the ground, crying at this point.

“Oh, I just thought this would be fun and it sure is!” The intercom came on for a moment.

“THIS IS FUN TO YOU?! MAKING CHILDREN KILL EACH OTHER?!” She was hysterical. Her eyes wide and her body shaky.

“Amaya, come on,” A boy with a more childish face than the rest of us grabbed her arm and pulled her up.

Everyone started fighting me. I had killed Iwa and Irwin but now everyone was focused on me.

The room echoed as I was landing left after right, right after left, they couldn’t use their magic for the same reason that they couldn’t in the school fight. They were worried about hitting each other with it.

It’s usually like this anyways. Me against the world. I enjoyed it when it came to fighting but I didn’t like being by myself out there in the real world.

“Why can’t we land anything?!” One of the male students said, frustrated.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Amaya replied.

It suddenly hit me. I thought Amaya looked familiar. She was in my math class at school.

“A few months ago, he got into a fight at school with 4 other guys. And still won,” she responded.

Eventually, all of them were knocked unconscious besides one. Amaya stood over me as I breathed heavily.

“We could’ve been friends but you had to go and kill Iwa and Irwin. I didn’t want to do this.”

My body wouldn’t move. I was too exhausted from the fighting. She put her hands forward with her palms facing me.

“Burn.”

My body was set ablaze. I’m not going to scream or cry again.

My mom was the only person who I could be open to and now she’s gone.

I won’t give you the satisfaction, Amaya. It hurt like hell. My body was charred as she walked away.

I raised my hand up into the sky.

“Magnetic Healing.” By manipulating my own electromagnetic field, I’m able to heal injuries. I struggled with this spell.

Thanks, Amaya, I couldn’t have figured this one out without you.

She should’ve killed me when she had the chance. I got up and saw that everyone lying on the ground had been killed. Amaya must’ve decided that when she killed me, she was going to be the one to win or maybe she thought she was helping them by ending their suffering.

I walked to the exit.

She was standing there, pulling the wheel.

“HEY, EVERYONE ELSE IS DEAD?! WHY WON’T THIS OPEN?!” She yelled to the man on the intercom.

“No, not everyone,” he giggled.

I slid the sword in her back.

She crumpled to the ground.

“I thought,” she coughed out blood, “you were dead,” she laid her head down and stared up at the ceiling.

“You should’ve gone for the head,” I stabbed my sword through her heart and for good measure, I sliced her head off.

The wheel started turning and the door shot open. The man who Edmond brought me to was standing there in a fancy black suit. His hair was short and white like snow. I didn’t get as good a look at him before but he was pretty built. His shoulders were massive and his jaw was chiseled. His chest popped through his suit, the buttons barely holding his pecs back.

“Isn’t that suit a little too tight?” I asked him.

“Is it really? I had it tailor made.” He responded.

“Anyways, I’m Vance Tenebris and you’ve won!” Yay!” He clapped a little.

“Can I just…” I started to fall forward. Vance caught me.

“Yes, you’ve done well today,” he said. My vision disappeared as I fell asleep.

Vance taught me everything he knew. From fighting and magic to how he does his business.

Vance would oftentimes take me on little expeditions with him as he murdered, robbed, or just tortured people. I didn’t really understand why at first but then he told me, his business was built on crime. He sold drugs, he murdered, he did a little bit of everything, a jack of all trades he called himself.

On one of these expeditions, we got a request to eliminate Vernon Newsmith.

We found Vernon Newsmith. He was a sneaky one; it took us nearly two weeks to find him. Vance let me torture him. I enjoyed his screams as I pried his fingernails off.

After a while, we killed him. Vance enjoyed it more than me although I felt relief, joy, and a sort of emptiness wash over me.

“What now, Vance?” I asked him.

“What do you mean what now?” He replied.

“Well, are you gonna take me somewhere and kill me now that Newsmith is dead?”

“No? We’re gonna keep doing this? What’s gotten into you?”

I looked at him and smiled. My life was ruined but I was relieved. Maybe this is what I was meant for.

“He has a son, though, Aaron Newsmith. Word is he’s some sort of prodigy. You’re not quite there yet but we’ll get you there. Remember how you said you were gonna “kill his bloodline” to Mr. Lefono?”

I looked up at him and shook my head up and down.

“And you’re going to need an alias so you aren’t hunted down everywhere you go,” he tapped his chin,”I think Dugal fits well. I heard it when I was traveling abroad. It means “dark” or “stranger”. And well that’s what you are. You’re just a stranger,” we walked out of there and left the body behind.

Now, it wasn’t all great. My life still sucked. Vance would beat me. He would use me as a decoy for a lot of missions and I would get my ass kicked like nobody’s business. Vance didn’t treat me like an apprentice, more of like a tool.

I didn’t wanna be meant for this but this is my fate.

One brought upon me against my will.

“By your father,” Dugal finished.

“That’s in the past. I don’t know why he did that but I’m sorry he did. However,” I walked away to the two students on the ground with their heads gone.

I covered them with my jacket and turned around.

“I cannot let this go. This is for the students’ who lives you took.”

I faced Dugal face to face.

He jumped backwards and prepared his fighting stance.