The Keeper Exams

Mind - Task Four

User: AllieCat8

Name: Dakota Bennett

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User: I_like_chocolate1

Name: Hazel de Nile

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User: Rdmwrites

Name: Ripley Korina Alician

Once again, here I was. Changing.

Today was a ball or something. I didn't really pay attention when Kate explained it. We all had to dress up, not my favorite thing. Then we had to socialize with others, and eat fancy food and dance. Like a Bat Mitzvah filled with the supernatural.

I wore a simple outfit, a pretty royal blue dress that went down to my knees, with rhinestones decorating across my stomach. My wispy blond hair had been braided and curled, into a fancy bun around the back of my head, and one of the Guardes had even gotten me to wear makeup. I didn't look all to bad, really, if you didn't notice the fact that there were tons of tiny safety pins holding the dress in place, since even the smallest size they could bring to me didn't fit. It's amazing what starving yourself does.

As I added the final touches to my hair, making sure all the bobby pins were in place before I walked into the grand ball room, and hand tapped me on the shoulder, as someone slipped something into my hair. I whipped around, lightly feeling for whatever had been put into my perfect hair, which I found out a moment later was a silver clip. Put in by the one person I was not expecting to see here. Gabriel.

I suppose I should explain. I may have mentioned my mother's condition once or twice. But I never really told you why, have I? I had a brother, Gabriel, who died when he was six. I was born two weeks before he died, so I never knew him. My mother didn't believe that he had died, and she talked to him. She thought he was still here. The doctors loaded her on medicine, trying to erase him from her memory. I had never known Gabriel, but sometimes he came up with in dreams. In his older form, as though he was still alive. I talked to him too, confiding everything in the dead boy. I didn't expect to see him here.

"Gabriel?" I gapped, looking up at him. He looked like an older version of me, with blond hair and a warm smile. The only difference were his crystal blue eyes, looking down on me.

"You've certainly aged beautifully, Ripley. Shall we?" He didn't seem to noticed how fazed I was by his appearance, holding out his arm to me.

"You-you're dead, Gabe," I said, taking his arm none the less.

"I've got some explaining to do, but so do you, okay? I'm not dead, I'm a hybrid, like you. But we can talk about his later. You've got a party to enjoy," he told me, leading me into a line with all the other apprentices and their escorts. "Okay, Rip? Just follow my lead, and you'll be fine," Gabe told me, leading me down he stairs. I didn't answer, playing with the little silver bracelet on my wrist, which was supposed to interfere with my abilities. The line slowly inched forward, apprentices being called by their Gift. Finally the girl in front of me entered, and Gabe and I were behind the doors.

"Ripley Alician and her escort Gabriel Alician!" Called one of the men, as we entered the huge foyer. It was certainly a sight, hundreds of people, no, Hybrids, sitting at the table. I wasn't sure what to do, so I have a small curtesy and followed Gabe down a flight of extravagant stairs. I wouldn't tripped several times, since I wasn't looking where I was going, rather simply staring at the whole hullabaloo, but Gabe, being the brother he was, kept me steady. It was just like I had imagined him, but here, in real life.