A New Beginning

Derek blinked a couple of times, he opened his eyes and looked around him, taking in his environment bit by bit. He was on a low bunk bed and on the other side of the room there was another low bunk bed which was empty. There was a door at the far end of the room and another close to the other bunk bed in the room.

Derek put his hand to his head, it was throbbing badly, he began to wonder what had transpired and how he had gotten to this strange place. Just as if in answer to his thoughts he saw the door knob turn and someone came into the room. It was a teen boy who he surmised to be around the same age as he was.

"Oh, you are finally awake" the boy said as he sauntered into the room. He had a goofy grin which seemed like it was always plastered on his face. He was a bit tall, a few inches taller than Derek, Derek could tell.

His short brown hair was trimmed neatly at every end, the combination of his short hair and goofy grin made him look not so threatening, so Derek wasn't really bothered. He had already come to the conclusion that he must be his roommate, as that must be the only explanation to the empty bunk bed and the stranger popping into the room at that moment.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Derek asked simultaneously

"Easy tiger" the brown-haired boy replied showing off his white set of teeth in a wide green "I guess you really didn't know what happened then"

"I'm Chuck" the brown-haired boy started. Derek had to resist the urge to laugh, 'what a dumb name' he thought. He wasn't sure he was really in a position to be laughing, he didn't know where he was neither did he know who Chuck was at least he needed some answers before deciding if laughing at this guy's name was the best option.

"And I am your roommate and you can quickly take a shower over there" Chuck said, pointing to the door near his bunk bed. This was not what Derek wanted to hear, his mind was still blank and the only thing he was able to clearly remember was his name.

Derek was about to open his mouth to ask a few questions again but Chuck cut him short before he could start his questions "When you're done, come with me. We will go see the headmaster, he said you should come straight to him when you wake"

'Headmaster'? Derek thought. 'This must be a school but what type of schools had such a setup?'

There was a screen at the wall in the middle of the two bunk beds, the screen was neatly tucked in a holder, it looked automatic because Derek really doubted someone was always there to return the screen to its cover after use, there was also a conditioning system on the other side of the room that acted as both a heater and a cooler.

The screen on the conditioning system read 29 degrees, Derek couldn't really tell if it was cold outside or hot. The temperature in the room was just perfect and he had never had access to this type of technology before. He wasn't quite sure how he knew, he just knew.

Derek wasn't satisfied with the answers he had received from Chuck but since he had mentioned Headmaster, Derek only thought he would get his answers from there, so he immediately stood up from the bed, ignoring Chuck and went into the bathroom.

"This is the boys dorm. We are mostly two per room except for some special cases. How are you feeling so far?" Chuck asked as he walked Derek down to the headmaster's office.

'Does this guy ever shut up' Derek wondered as he ignored Chuck and kept walking behind him. While in the bathroom Derek had already tried his best to remember how he got here but nothing was coming to mind.

With Chuck leading the way, they climbed down a flight of stairs and came to the end of a corridor. Chuck led him right out and kept on walking, they passed a field and then a few buildings which Chuck told Derek what they were used for, but he was far too deep in his thoughts to acknowledge Derek.

"Here we are" Chuck said coming to an abrupt halt that Derek almost ran into him. Derek looked at the door in his front, the words HEADMASTER was boldly written at the top of the door.

"Do you think it was really a good idea to have him taken to the dorms while he was still unconscious?" Derek could hear a male raspy voice from the closed door

"I think he has a temporal memory loss due to shock. I didn't think it would be a good idea to have him wake up at the infirmary with the white sheets and white curtains all over" this time it was the sweet calming voice of a female that sounded from the other side of the door.

Chuck leaned closer to the door with a sly grin on his face after hearing the second voice at the door.

"Can we go in now?" Derek cut Chuck's eavesdropping short

"Oh, yes. Of course" Chuck answered sheepishly and quickly knocked on the door

"Come in" boomed the raspy voice from inside the room.

Chuck opened the door and stood to the side to let Derek in first. Derek quickly took the room in at a single glance, the table in front of the Headmaster had only a few books on it but it also had a two monitors and a transparent ball that kept flashing different colors of light.

The Office of the Headmaster was quite spacious compared to the room he had just left and it was filled with all sort of weird things of which most could be passed off as technology, starting from the ball on the table that wouldn't stop flashing lights.

"Here you are" the Headmaster started "I have been waiting for you. Take your seat" the Headmaster motioned to one of the empty seats inside his spacious office and waved Chuck out.

"I'm the Headmaster, you can call me just that. Here" he pointed to the fair pretty lady with long white hair and pointed nose "This is the nurse, Emily"

Derek turned to glance at the fair lady sitting a chair from his like he just noticed her presence in the room. She flashed him a bright smile, Derek didn't smile back.

"Derek" the Headmaster started again, this time his voice had gone a little bit somber. Derek hadn't said anything since he entered the Headmaster's office.

"I guess you don't recall anything that happened three days ago"

'Three days!!!' Derek almost screamed in his head "Have I been sleeping for three days?" he asked

Emily nodded her head slowly "You were in a self-induced coma due to shock"

"Why was I in a coma?" Derek asked again turning to face Emily who had been answering all his questions but this time she kept quiet and turned her face away from him.

"Your parents and your sister were killed" the Headmaster said slowly

"Parents? Sister?" Derek said almost under his breath "I don't…" His voice trailed off as he tried to process the information he couldn't even understand.

"A Gate opened in Red Rocks near your house and before the soldiers could arrive from the city, the beasts had wiped out almost everyone"

'A Gate'

'Red Rocks'

'Beasts'

'Parents'

The information was like a stream of water gushing out from a pipe aimed straight at his face and he was trying to take it in all at once.

Derek didn't know when his hand made his was to his hair and began squeezing, he almost couldn't hear or see anything in the room only these words were churning in his mind.

Suddenly it hit him, the memory all came flooding back.

The Sun was almost setting in the horizon, he was out with his dad throwing a Frisbee. His they had just finished their drill and Derek was still very energetic.

His dad took him out into the field four days in a week to train, he had decided to teach him everything he knew when he turned thirteen.

It was the family's martial art style which had been passed down for generations his dad had also modified their fighting style and added his own veteran skills here and there.

"You should be training your body and not throwing Frisbees, your body is nowhere strong enough to implement my fighting styles and you are not even ready for the final lesson" his father cautioned while smiling since he was also enjoying having a fun time with his son.

"Yeah I know that" Derek said without a care. His father always talked about this great final lesson, how it was a special lesson and how it was something he needed to learn to control.

Derek didn't really mind, he just wanted to throw Frisbees since he didn't have much friends.

They were just getting home when the alarm sounded, then it sounded again and stopped.

A gate with level two threat, his dad froze and let the Frisbee fly over his head as he saw a gate appear behind Derek.