The Hell Within Us All

Chapter 1

11 Years Later...

My eyes fluttered open. I smile. My place is decided today. Maybe I'll get off easy and my place will be an ore gatherer. I'd like that. The front line is much too exciting. And there's always that chance of getting shot by an American. That word disgusts me. It started off, Britain against America, nothing big. But then the Americans attacked the Irish, so we decided to help Britain. I don't know my parents. That was the price of an alliance with Britain. All our young must be sent to Britain for twelve years to receive the proper training. They're bloody lucky enough we even granted them an alliance. I believe I have spent long enough in bed awake. I climb out. My room is clean, as it usually is. All rooms are the same at this institute. The colour is the neutral grey. I look at my bed. Generic. As it usually is. See, in the Modern Era, they always believed we would reach world peace, have a bright and colourful world, all problems sorted. That was a load of bull. I look into my mirror. My reflection's golden eyes stare right back at me. My honeydew hair is angled across my left eye. I smile again. Smiling is weird. Especially at a time like this...
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I've gotten into my grey suit. Three more hours. I am escorted to the Hall, where all members of the Institute are waiting. I meet up with my friends, Jace Loft and Ashley Montgomery. Jace has cropped jetblack hair with blue-grey eyes, whereas Ashley has mousey brown hair that goes down to her shoulders. Her eyes are blue, but fainter.
"And here he is. Mr. Eronborn, half an hour late! " Jace says sarcastically. Ashley giggles. I roll my eyes, grinning.
"Fashionably late," I say. Now Jace is grinning.
Here we are laughing, I think. While the other soldiers are out, dying. And we will soon join them.
Maia frowns.
"What's wrong Jason?" She asks. I realise I am frowning. I fake a grin.
"Nothing. Jus' thinking about kittens crying," I say. She apparently buys it, then frowns.
"The poor kittens..." she says. Jace smirks.
"Probably Caelan kicking them," he says. The three of us laugh, then glance at Caelan. Caelan is a bully and a pig. He stands over at the food stand, eating anything he gets his hands on. He looks towards us, but we hastily change the direction we face. I check the grey clock that hangs above us all. Two and a half more hours. Then our lives will change forever...
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Three more minutes. I'm terrified. What if I'm a spy, or... (God forbid) a distraction. That would be bad. Nobody survives as them. It's... like... The second worst job. The worst? Masarith. It's the best for most, if they are physically and mentally strong enough. But that isn't a possibility for me. True, I may have a high enough IQ, but I am too... scrawny? Yeah, I'd say scrawny. I'd say Caelan would have a higher chance than me. I look at him.
NAH! I close my eyes. Thirty more seconds. I inhale. Twenty more. A long exhale. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six.
"Attention, attention!" A voice says through an intercom. Five. I reopen my eyes. Four.
"Can all," Three, "the participants," Two, "take their," One, "places at the podiums?"
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I'm standing on my podium. There is about three hundred of us. I am not close to Jace and Ashley; they are about twenty podiums away. They are side by side though. Ashley looks nervous, and a small part of me dies when I see what happens next. Jace looks her in the eye, all serious, and takes her hand. And then I realise that I have always been the third wheel. My mind races on, but is stopped dead by the gong.
This is it.
It's time.