Chapter 8: Tom

After I stopped screaming (which didn't take long) we were flying for a while in silence. I'm over 80,000 feet in the air and I have a phobia of heights. The wind is cold and sharp against my skin as I can barely see what's in front of me. I try to just sleep, but it's too uncomfortable. The bird creature used its claws and placed me on it's back.

"There, now you can sleep."

I tried to say something, but was too tired too. I fell asleep instantly. I woke up to find myself lying on the grass. I get up and look around. There was a tall dark castle. Wait… a castle? It didn't look like your average castle, it looked more like a school, but castle like. I look around, in hopes to see Luisa, Aden, or Ana. At least they should be safe at the camp. The bird creature from before was gone so I didn't know where to go. As I passed by, some of the girls stared at me.

I heard a few say, "Look at the new kid!"

"I wonder what he can do."

"Maybe he's a demon, usually all the cute guys are either demons or wolves."

I heard them giggle as I continued to walk towards the school. I had never been very confident. I suddenly think back to the time I first was chosen for spy school. I was taken from my home when I was about 8. I cried for my parents, but they were too late, I was gone. When we got there, the room was filled with about a thousand 8 year olds, the boys and girls were separated. I tried to talk to them, but they refused to talk to me. A thin woman came to the platform.

"I know some of you are scared, confused, angry, and emotional. You want to see your parents, but this is an opportunity to become something no child has the opportunity to become, A SPY!" All I wanted at the time was to go back home.

The woman said that we would start to train the next day and to get some rest. Room numbers were given to each of us as they sorted us into a line. The rooms were not separated by gender, but by age. They said that you must be adaptive to new things and sharing a room with someone you don't know is one way to do so. I was given room G546. They now sorted us by floor numbers. My room level was below ground and I was put in an elevator. After being directed to my room, I was told to go in and introduce myself while waiting for the rest of my roommates. I go in and close the door behind me. I look at my roommates. So far there were 5 people in the room with me. I counted the beds, there were only four. I thought that someone would have to sleep on the floor and that somebody would be me. There were three boys and two girls. No one is talking and it's really bugging me since all you could hear was the footsteps outside. One of the girls sighed.

"Ok, I don't like sitting here in silence so I'll start it off, my name is Anastasia, but you guys can call me Ana. Let's see, I always dreamed of being a spy, but not like this. My parents hated me a lot and always shouted at each other and would always blame me. And…"

I saw a tear fall down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away. I felt like she was full of sadness, but was always happy. I suddenly saw a flash of a tear, it was black like ink and it was running down the girl's face, but there was no longer a smile on her face. She gave me a sad look and tilted her head and smiled at me. Not a devilish smile, no, it was more like a sad smile. Light returned to my eyes and I saw her looking weird at me. It seems that I blanked out for a bit. She tilted her head and gave me a smile. I hadn't noticed her beauty before, she had a kind heart, but it was broken.

"Ok, that's all for mine, how about you?"

She pointed at a kid who looked angry. The guy wasn't very tough looking, but looked like he could pack a pretty good punch.

"I don't have anything to say."

"Oh come on! Of course you do! You could tell us your name, where you're from, what you like to do, what's your family like-"

"I DON'T HAVE A FAMILY!"

She looked surprised, but didn't back away. Instead, to everyone's surprise, she gave him a hug.

She whispered, "If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. We would at least like to know your name. I would hate to have to call you by what you wear."

He seemed to brighten up and started to laugh. I finally noticed that his shoes had bananas on them. I started to laugh too. After that day, I started to like Ana. She helped out a lot, she was really sweet, and pretty too. Then, there was the fire, of course the school had procedures to handle this, but the school was invaded by a group of men who seemed to be highly trained. I had grown older by then and me and Ana were now 12 and best of friends. Me and her were evacuating the younger ones. Ana started to cough, the smoke started to come this way as well.

"Ana, go, I can take care of them."

She didn't answer, instead, she ran straight into the fire. I chased after her, it was too risky to look for survivors when we ourselves were in danger. I could barely see, but I kept going. I called someone's voice far away.

"Tom! Tom! Tom! TOM!"

I look back to see someone aiming straight for me. I was thrown against a wall. Ana came running to help me, but was stopped by some guy trying to burn everything. She yelled in pain as I couldn't do anything but watch in horror. I overdosed with anger and threw the guy backwards. I ran straight to Ana as she tried to get up, but she couldn't. She always had a plan, but this time, it might be her last. While I was crawling towards her, a man kicked me, sending me straight into glass. I felt my right leg go numb. Then suddenly, the pain struck me, I howled in pain as the fire grew worse.

"You should have left when you had the chance, but you brats wanted to play hero, huh. Now you're going to die for it. " He aimed his gun straight toward me as I closed my eyes.

"I don't think so mister." Ana grabbed the gun and snapped it in half like it was a thin piece of wood .

"B-b-but how?! That was pure metal!"

"And you´re pure stupidity. You just had to mess with our school. Now, YOU'RE going to pay for it."

She picked up a piece of broken glass and threw it at him. It pinned him right against the wall. Her eyes were glowing red.

Ana picked up another piece and it went right through his legs. His screams echoed through the burning corridor.

"This one's for burning the school."

She threw an iron bar at his arm and started to walk closer.

"This one's for hurting my friend ."

She threw thick glass pieces at one of his hands. I thought he would die from the pain by now.

"This one's for hurting everyone."

She didn't do anything. Instead she counted from 6 using her fingers.

"6"

I could hear something coming this way.

"5"

The noises grew closer.

"4"

"3"

I could see the blood trickling down my hand. The blood was shaking.

"2"

There was silence.

"1"

A claw came from beneath him and swallowed him whole.

The ground patched itself up and the fire ceased. She suddenly fainted as I crawled to her. She was extremely cold, even in the fire. Ana never remembered or spoke about that day. The school was rebuilt within a day and classes resumed as normal. We were labeled as heros for saving students from the fire. I never told her what happened that day and thought it was best to leave it. I actually forgot about it until now. When we were 14, we were allowed to go on an adult mission. The adult spies were busy working on a disappearance case. Our mission was to figure out what was going on in the woods. Who knew that would lead up to this.

"Hey new kid!"

I turned around to see a muscular kid running up to me. Jeez, I thought, this guy must work out. As he came closer, I noticed he had green eyes, bold red hair,

"I'm James, what's your name?" He held out his hand, so I shook his hand.

"James, where am I?"

"If you don't know where you are, why ARE you here?" He started to laugh and threw his head back.

"I'm just messing with you kid, you're at school, the school for kids like us."

He pointed around us. I gave him a weird look since they all looked normal to me.

"Ok, let me show you what I mean."

He let out a deep sigh and in the blink of an eye, turned into a red wolf.

"Pretty neat, huh?"

It was neat to be able to turn into an animal and still be able to speak.

"Yeah, that's pretty cool. How did you do that?"

He transformed back and beside him layed a little wolf pup.

"Oh shoot! Skulls' out again!"

He quickly attached a leash and said something under his breath. The wolf pup vanished into the air.

"Where did it go?"

"Oh he's fine. I just sent him back home. You see, to be able to transform, you need the spirit of the animal to do so. Skull was the runt of his litter and he reminded me of, well, me. I chose him to keep by my side, but I felt bad about keeping him away from his family. So I would send him home when we're not training or in transformation. I used a spe-"

He quickly shut up and looked around to see if anyone heard him.

"Let's talk somewhere more private."

He grabbed my hand and literally dragged me behind the school. It was most definitely not one of my most favorable moments. My head was spinning faster than a top and I was incredibly dizzy.

"Oh sorry about that mate, I should've warned you earlier. Like I was saying, I use a spell to transport him back and forth. Everyone is expected to treat their animals as slaves, but I-I just can't do that. He's like a pet to me and I love him a lot and want him to have the freedom that he deserves. Most people do that too, but for some reason, I can't. I can't even attempt it or I'll get really sick. I didn't tell anyone about this so when I send Skull home, no one knows the difference"

He looks away and his gaze stops on the woods.

"Of course, freedom was a price I was willing to pay. I stole a book from the restricted section of the library for spells. The school only allowed the tops of the sixth year classes to use spells, and I'm a first year so that was out of the question. I learned a transportation spell that allowed me to teleport an object or being to a specific destination. One of the areas that he could teleport, but…"

He looks down in shame.

"Using spells here is strictly against the rules, unless you had permission too, which I didn't get."

I was just really confused, teleportation, spells, school, a library. Maybe not that last part.

"So why are you telling me this?"

"Oh well, first off, you're the "new kid", making gestures with his hands, "and, you can't transform. Also, you seem pretty cool to hangout with. SO, we cool?"

I had no idea if he was telling the truth or just messing with me.

"Yeah, we're cool."

"Great! What class do you have first?"

"Um, I don't have classes or a schedule."

I gave a pretty pathetic shrug. I was really sore from the flight and the fear from it was still here. I suddenly felt extremely sick and I felt like I was going to throw up. I lean over ready to puke.

"Hey dude, you don't look too good."

I look up.

"You think?"

He looks worried and looks around to see if anyone else is here.

"Okay I can teleport us inside the nurses office, I just hope no one else is in there."

He recites a spell in a language I didn't understand. It was nothing like I ever heard before. Suddenly, we disappeared and all I could see was pitch black within that second that we teleported! I felt even more sick and dizzy too.

"That poor animal." I moaned.

As he helps me to a bed, he keeps looking back and around us. My vision got blurry and I couldn't see him clearly anymore, all I could see of James was his outline. His voice got blurry too, but I heard one word clearly before I fell asleep, "poison." When I got up, my vision was back and I finally took in what was around me, the nurses office was huge. It had all sorts of animals on the walls and ceiling, heck it even had demons a little devils on it. What was this school?

"Looks like pretty boy is awake."

I turned around to see an extremely pretty girl standing in the doorway. She had short blue hair and dark green eyes. Her hands were crossed as she leaned to one side against the door.

"If you're done googling at me, Miss Saffron wants to see you."

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled.

"Um, who's Miss Saffron and where's James?"I asked,"Jeez, I must be outta my mind."

She walked toward me, grabbed my shirt collar and gave me a quick kiss. She pulled away quickly and walked away , her face really red.

"T-there! You should know where to go now!"

She walked out and I could feel my cheeks really red. I suddenly knew where to go and who Miss Saffron was. So that's why she kissed me. I was still processing what just happened when James poked his head through.

"What's up Tom, how's your headache?"

"I'm fine now, thanks for helping me. So why did I get sick all of the sudden?"

"Oh well, you were poisoned. I don't know where it's from, but it's not good. You have to be careful. I think someone is actually trying to kill you."`

He gave me a worried expression and sighed.

"You gotta be careful around here. Remember, you don't have powers or magic."

No dip sherlock, I thought. He was just worried, maybe we could be friends.

"I know James. Hey, maybe we could be friends?"

I once again, gave him my pathetic shrug. I really am pathetic.

"Sure, let's be friends."

"Sweet!"

"Where do you have to go now?"

"Oh yeah, I'm supposed to go to Miss Saffron."

"Do you know where to go? I could take you there."

"I know where to go, oh and do you know a girl with short blue hair and dark green eyes?"

"Um, do you mean Jess?"

"I guess so, does she have power or something?"

"Well, some of us have powers and we can transform and this does not require the use of magic."

"Oh, well what's her power?"

"Hold on, let me guess, she kissed you."

He gave me a sly grin.

"What no no no no no, well no, maybe, no, well yes, possibly, most likey?"

"So she kissed you?"

"Yes."

"What are you so ashamed about? She's really pretty, heck, I would be flying if she gave me a hug, much less a kiss."

He gave me a slap to back and in perspective, hurt. This guy definitely works out.

"I don't know, it's because I already like someone else and well, that's not her."

"Oooo Mr. pretty boy has a crush!"

"Why is everyone calling me pretty boy?! I'm just an average looking person."

"Mmhm, then that makes me your average clown elf."

"Huh?"

"Dude, you're pretty cute for a guy, and I'm straight, dude, not trying to hit on ya."

I wasn't even listening. I just kept thinking about what Ana would think. Would she dislike me? Would she hate me? Would she be jealous? What if she didn't care? What if she didn't even like me? That felt like shattered glass to my stomach. If she didn't like me, would it matter if I kept my heart closed until she accepts it.

"Um dude, you okay?"

"Yeah yeah, I'm just thinking."

"Thinking about what, you're crush?"

"N-no."

I noticed I was blushing and cursed myself.

"I can see you blushing! Soo who's the lucky girl?"

He sounded like a kid asking for candy and wasn't leaving without it.

"Fine, her name is Ana and she's way prettier than her. She super sweet and cute an-"

"You wouldn't mind if I meet her too, right?"

He gave me a hopeful smile. I laughed and sighed.

"Sure, just don't flirt with her." I start to walk out.

"Oh come on! Not even a little?"

I stop at the doorway and look back.

"Not even a little."