Crawl From Hell

7

October 22. Lucas

Pushing Anixa's little bout of jealousy aside, I made it a point to start my day in a more peaceful manner. My room was nothing special, however it did remind me of home and served to help boost my peaceful feelings. While everyone was on the 'I Hate Althea' train, I couldn't help but admire her even more as I stared around at my decorations. She had retrieved everything from my room and even brought my posters to me as if I had to have them. 

Of course, she had probably sent some other people to go get the stuff, but I felt better when I imagined her carefully boxing up my clothes, action figures, comics, and other things. I was only embarrassed that she had seen my nerdy collection for a second, because the last time she had seen my room she hadn't even blinked at it. 

"Hello?" Chaos said as he opened the door. "You're about to be late for breakfast."

"I'm not too hungry." I lied. 

"You still have to eat." He frowned and waved me over. 

In reality, I was starving. I really didn't want to get my day started, because I was fearing having to be the new kid in class and then go directly into training afterward. It sounded exhausting, but I really had no choice. It's not like I could say 'thanks for the opportunity,' and then leave. However, it would be good for my peace.

"You'll get to meet your mentor later." Chaos explained with a smile. "You'll love him, eventually."

"Eventually?" I was stunned at his word choice. 

"He's the best of the best." Chaos shrugged as if we were having a normal discussion. "He's really cutthroat, but he's never failed anyone." 

"What does cutthroat mean?" My stomach clenched as a I thought of what that could've meant and how awful it would be. 

"I'd rather not spoil it for you." Chaos flinched in response. 

That told me all that I had needed to know. Judging by his sudden flinch and refusal to explain further, I could only assume this man was a hellish creature. Without the further explanation I was left imagining many different forms of torture and long lasting psychological abuse coming from this darkened entity that I had built in my mind. I was ready for neither of those options and the more I thought about it the more I had shivered at it. 

"But don't worry. You'll be okay." Chaos hurriedly said. 

"You're really not making this better." I shot him a glare. 

"Breakfast will." He smiled and threw open the door to the school cafe/dining hall. 

The dormitories to the school were set up by age groups. While the adults had an apartment closer to the younger children's dorms, our area had seemed more secluded. It was a very sketchy decision to leave a bunch of seventeen to nineteen year old boys unattended in a dorm hall together, but I wasn't gonna make any complaints too soon. Although the older kids' dorms were only separated by a flight of stairs, it was still quite the interesting decision. 

The boy's dormitory building was connected to the girls with a singular hallway that was divided by a gate. The boys were allowed to be in the girls' dorm, and vice versa, however there was usually some Guardian around to be sure there wasn't any inappropriate activities happening. We all also shared a on-grounds cafe that was completely decorated like an old gothic castle. It was a short path away from the dorms and connected to the adults' lounge, but their lounge wasn't nearly as cool as our cafe.  

As I stepped into the cafe I could feel all eyes dart to me. Both younger and older kids had slowed down their talking in order to sneak a glance at me. The kids twelve and under ate in the dorm ground floor where they had all of their classes, but they had been more accepting of me every time I had passed through the hall. It was odd to be stared at by kids closer to my age while all of the younger kids were excited to have me around and had already invited me to play tag and other childish games.