DON'T PRAY TO ME

01 - Blinding Light

The light is blinding. Rachel covers her eyes with her arm. The light pierces through it as if her flesh isn't there. She squeezes her shut eyes. Still no end to it. The back of her eyeballs hurt. Her nerve ends stab. Her flesh and bones melt, without the heat. It's torture. Then she opens her eyes. She's on her bed. Surrounded by darkness. Rachel breathes out in relief. That wasn't real. She sits up over the edge of her bed. "Ugh." Pain assaults her head. Rachel hears the faint alarm of her mother's old table clock. She pushes it down to the floor from her nightstand. Used to her abuse, the clock takes its cue and stops. Rachel gropes the table for the bottom drawer. She pulls it out and grabs the teal glass bottle half full of small and white round pills. She unscrews it, slowly; quietly. Pops one into her mouth and swallows. It'll take a few minutes to work. Rachel leans back on her arms and closes her eyes. This time there's darkness. Pure, solid, inviting. It's peaceful.

She feels a weak breeze kiss her cheek and looks around. Rachel is the only one up. Everyone else is asleep. Someone must have left the window open, she thinks. She stares at the seemingly never ending space of her dorm. It's inundated with pale blue light. As if they are under water. When the light becomes warm in front of her eyes, she turns to her right, towards the eighty feet tall wall, made of thick, translucent glass fixed between broad iron grids. As the light grows, the glass becomes visible again after having disappeared into the night before. Rachel groans inside. It'll soon be sunrise.

  She jumps when a cat climbs up on her bed. "Someone really did leave the window open," she whispers, looking disapprovingly at the cat. She should later report it to Sister Agatha. Agatha will be furious. But cats can't come in. Everyone keeps their snack stashes under their beds. Cats steal them. Rachel then ignores the black feline and stares up at the ceiling. She should go shower before the building comes alive with chatters of girls, shrieks, buzzes of hairdryers, and clacks of heels. But her headache is still in remission. So she waits and vacantly looks at the place that's been her residence since she was twelve.

  The dorm was added to the school, Erno Schola, in 1634. The school had already been established for centuries by then. There were twenty female Deirci students boarding in this dorm at the time. Now there are hundreds. Just a small fraction of the students attending Erno Schola, which is much more than a mere academy. It's the flame the young supernaturals are drawn to like moths, in the hope of making it into a better world, or if you're already from a better world then it's the alumni of your well off parents. Either way, this is where the future leaders are — ministers, chiefs, monarchs and more. Any of which Rachel can never be. But she's here. Hoping that she'll at least get to work with one of them. If she's lucky enough, the right one.

———

While Rachel adjusts the lapel of her tweed coat on the way to school, Mithria and her entourage bump into her. All the things Rachel was holding on her hands fall to the ground. Rachel cusses herself for not having put them in her bag. "Morning Sabi!" One of the girls says as Rachel leans forward to pick up her scattered possessions. "Hey, Rachel, later let me have your GCP," Mithria says and walks away with the other girls following her like threads tied to a needle hole. Rachel hates them. Her bullies. She also hates that word, Sabi, a demeaning term used to refer to Rank-D Deirci. Rachel hates the school, too. She's the only Rank-D supernatural here. And the school never lets her forget. No matter how well she scores. No matter how well she behaves. She can't stand up against them. If she does, she'll be the one kicked out, along with her dreams of a better life for herself and her poor parents. She's just a Sabi to the other Deirci in the school. They don't care about her. She just needs to be of use. Mithria is a Rank-C Lucane Deir. There's another name for them in the human world, Fairies. In fact every kind of Deirci have a name of their own among the human kind — Gods, Angels, Guardian Spirits, Fairies, and many more. They all have one thing in common. They are the good supernaturals. Good. That makes Rachel want to laugh. To her, they all are selfish and power-hungry beings who stomp on those weaker than them because it's fun.