Blades and Bullets

6. Red

I seemed to have drifted off into a very dark place, because when I shifted back to reality gasps were heard throughout the arena. What was going on? Why does everyone look as though they just saw frat boy ask for consent?

Then I saw it, deep crimson was glowing from the podium. I look to Valkyrie for reassurance, but I get none of that because she just stares at me blankly. Red? What, how? I don't understand, I thought only one person was ranked red? Is this some sort of prank?

I fucking did it didn't I?! I was ranked as one of the worlds greatest assassins.

"THAT'S MY BITCH!" I hear Val cheer in the corner as she shoots me a devilish wink.

"GET IT ONYX!" Ace joins in, followed by Mace.

It felt like minutes of silence had gone by when the audience had finally registered what had happened, then the screaming started.

"GO NEWBIE!" One shouts. "Damn looks like Knox has some competition!" Another student yells in the crowd. Knox? I swear I have heard that name somewhere before . . . Oh, right. The other red, I smirk to myself. My eyes are suddenly drawn across the room to the opponent I had fought in the ring, he was sitting on a chair beside the podium, glaring at me.

I am dragged out of my thoughts as Ace grabs my arm, here we go again. "Where are you taking me?" I sputter as he continues to pull me through the circle of students that had suddenly formed around me.

"To the squad house!" He replies joyously.

"The squad house?" I ask, disgust coating my words.

"Your temporary dorm?" he tells me with a look that pierces me with a hidden 'are you stupid' question.

"Since when is my dorm our 'squad house'?" I practically regurgitate as the words spill from my mouth.

"Well. . . technically it's not your dorm anymore." He wasn't wrong, now that grading was over i'd be moved into a permanent dorm, but that wasn't the point! I shake my head of my thoughts as something he said earlier suddenly blares in my mind. Ace told me that the dorms were separated by ranking, if I was ranked red and the only other red is Knox. . . does that mean I have to dorm with him?! "And it's been the squad house since I said so!" Ace continued, clearly not noticing that I had spaced out.

Once Ace and I arrived at the dorm I sat down on my bed, to be fair it's not really mine anymore. That brings me back to my previous issue.

"Do I have to dorm with Knox now?" I blurt out and they looked surprised at my sudden distress. Mace and Ace look to each other, grinning and I am suddenly struck with how frightening the image is. They struggle to hold in their laughter and I don't understand what's so funny. I am not going to dorm with the opposite gender, this isn't even me worrying about sexual relations or anything because for that I wouldn't even worry about the gender.

Suddenly the twins decided they couldn't hold their laughter any longer. "What's so funny?" Val asks, obviously the twins have gone insane.

"Why-" Ace struggles to talk through his laughter "-would-" laugh "-you-" giggle "-think-" sputter "-that?" he heaves.

"You said something about the dorms being split by ranking, correct? So if that is the case, and Knox and I are the only two reds in the world then won't we be placed in a dorm together? I don't wanna dorm with a male, he will leave his laundry lying around! What if he is naked when I enter the dorm after going to the bathroom? Or worse, what if he sleeps naked?!" I continue rambling on, it's a habit i've picked up. I tend to do it when I am on the verge of a panic attack, although the attack doesn't usually start until I fall silent and run out of things to say.

Val seems to notice what's occurring and rushes towards me, this has happened once or twice while we were living at my place but I never let her try to help me because honestly, it wouldn't help.

"Ok ok, calm down!" I hear Mace say in a teasing tone, "First of all, you are not sharing a dorm with Knox." She says in a sarcastic tone, "And secondly, I would make sure you never have to dorm with a guy, because you are right, living with a brother all guys do is leave their dirty laundry around."

"Hey!" Ace whined.

"Ok well can you please explain to us what is happening now? You know, with our dorms and stuff." Val, interrupts the twins and takes the spotlight off of me.

"Yeah that would be pretty helpful, because as you can see i'm kinda lost here." I add quietly.

"Ok! So basically-" Ace starts before he is cut off by Mace.

"No! You are not explaining it to them, you suck at explaining things!" Mace rolls her eyes, "I will tell them."

"Fine you can explain it to them, but for the record i'm an amazing explainer!" Ace flicks his chin up and away from Mace with his arms crossed like an entitled toddler.

"Ok, so i'll explain how the dorms are set out first. Onyx, you were correct in the sense that the dorms are separated by ranking. There are three floors in total, floor one has all the greens, floor two the yellows and floor three the reds. Only the yellows and greens have roommates."

"Why don't the red have roommates?" I ask  

"Well Onyx, if you would stop interrupting me I could explain it to you," I throw my hands back gesturing surrender and Mace scoffs at me, "Now the reason why the reds don't get roommates is because they are thought to be too dangerous, the principle decided they would be separated because reds tend to have a power complex and are easily angered due to their ego."

"No wonder she's a red! Makes total sense!" Val exclaims and I elbow her in the stomach. "See!" She nods to me and then to her stomach, I sigh in defeat not wanting to prove her point more than I already had, but just to be clear she started it.

"If you two children would like to stop bickering I could tell you where you will be staying for the next year! If not then I guess you can just sleep in the locker room," Mace teases and I just roll my eyes, gesturing for her to continue.

"So, because there has only been one red for some time they haven't had any issues and there has been a spare dorm on the third floor. They have only ever had two dorms on the third floor because it's rare to even have one red so there was never the need." Damn that must be lonely for Knox, having to be by himself. Unless he's like me, if that's the case he would probably hate me for taking the dorm opposite him, stealing away his peace.

"The bottom two floors are sectioned off into twos, with a boy and girl dorm for each floor." Mace turns to Val, "So you and I will be in the same area, maybe even the same dorm, I haven't had a roommate for the whole year so if I ask I might be able to get you to dorm with me." Lucky, I have to be stuck alone all on one floor with Knox, I haven't heard much about him. All I know is that he is the so called 'bad boy' of the school, pfft- just wait till he meets me. I'm suddenly reminded of the person I had defeated in the ring and scoff at his clear disrespect towards me.

"You good Nyx?" Ace turns to me.

"What was that guys deal?" I snarl.