New Horizons

Paper Planes

I tugged at my jacket sleeves as the crisp air settled around me. The school was odd and silent as usual. The faint glow of two moons cast a lovely chilling light around the entrance to the boys' dormitory.

I was crouched behind a bush not far away. An owl hooted from somewhere above me, no doubt wondering what this deranged-looking girl was doing out here past midnight.

My line of thought was somewhat similar but if I didn't do this now then I wouldn't get a good opportunity later.

A faint clatter of footsteps echoed on stone pavements as two rough-looking boys came into sight. One had horns and the other, a dim halo.

One of them had a bag slouched on his shoulder and chaos bubbled inside my chest as I recognized its soiled navy-blue color.

I rose from my hiding place and strolled to a spot a few meters from them next to one of the dormitory's pillars, my face hidden in the dark. They advanced obliviously and the halo guy noticed me.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Halo eyed me up and laughed, shifting the bag to his other shoulder. I moved out of the shadows hoping for them to not anger me. The study session about the Origins of the Human Race was going to start tomorrow and the looks I'd get already had me in a bad mood.

The guy with horns faltered as moonlight washed my features clear of any fear. I nodded my head towards the navy bag.

"That doesn't belong to you, Kai."

He took a step back and dragged Halo with him." We were just fooling around." His voice was unhinged. "You can have it back."

Halo grunted, clearly surprised at Kai's disoriented state. "Why're you backing down? I can easily bury her and be done with it!"

"No, you can't. Not if you want to die a permanent death," Kai sounded scared and whispered, his voice barely audible," She's a human."

Halo's eyes went wide. He fumbled with the bag strap and put it down, all the while maintaining a cautionary stance. I reached for the bag and they fled inside.

***

"How?" Jack muttered. "I thought I'd lost it."

He riffled through the pages that previously filled the now empty bag. Sketches and colors splashed onto numerous designs and paintings of gray skies, heaps of doodles and crypts and codes, Jack had his life buried in these pages.

"Found it in the lost section," I hummed, sitting cross-legged on the floor. I lifted my head to look at him poised at the edge of the bed, concerned," You have everything, right? Nothing missing?"

"No." He breathed a smile and turned to face me. His red eyes were unusually bright and once again, I was struck by how different he was from the others. Red eyes meant pure. Meant holy, and sinister at the same time.

No wonder people were afraid and hateful towards him. Jack could easily come to scare commoners and he wouldn't even realize it. We made our way to the common building for starting lessons.

The same evening we visited the ruins of an old chapel that had just appeared near the backside of the girls' dormitory. The school moved a lot and every fortnight a new landscape with alien surroundings appeared.

Last time it was a snow-covered desert where birds of ice swooped down from great heights only to burn up and vaporize mid-flight.

This time it was somewhere green and dry; somewhere always night and an occasional warm current breezed through the windows whistling in a shimmering undertone no one understood.