Dystopia X

Face The Facts

The rest of the afternoon was left pacing around the grand hall. People were coming and going, Carter still hadn't resurfaced. Teresa had fallen asleep on top of the steel table. I couldn't sleep though, let alone sit down. The rest of Squadron had not arrived back to base, and it was coming up close to 7pm.
"Miss Myers what is the problem? You've been in here since 3pm" pipped in a voice from the stage. I whipped my head up to see Annika standing half out of the curtain, arms folded and hair tied in her signature bun. 
"Oh, hello miss" I replied, bowing, "I'm waiting for my group to return" I continued.

"Squadron 11. Why I already thought you had all come back" said Annika with a puzzled expression.
"Nope, just Carter, Teresa and I" I answered. We had been waiting for a while and although my body felt tired, my mind was wide awake and buzzing. Where could they be? Are they alright? Do they need help? A million more questions were whizzing around in my brain, but I had to keep my cool. Getting all into a nervous wreck was not something one would do to keep up a high profile. 
"Ok, just don't stay up too late. I'm sure they're fine" she said with a reassuring smile. I nodded and she turned around and briskly walked down the corridor, out of sight.

Time ticked away, Teresa eventually got up and left. There I was left, sitting alone in the huge yet empty hall. It was getting even later, I flicked my head up to peer at the clock, it read 11:30pm. I slumped down onto stool in the middle of the hall. Resting my head against the table, I started slowly drifting off to sleep. Hours passed, as when I awoke to the sound of yelling and strained voices. Surprised and disorientated, I whipped my head around the room to see Haruka kick open the door with great force. The doors swung open and smacked into the side walls, as he continued into the room I noticed he was carrying someone. Also supporting the obviously wounded person, was Justin.. and in their arms was Mayumi. I jumped to my feet and ran towards them.

The next few more hours were a whirlwind, loud voices, rushing around, mixed yelling and conversations were spent in that time. I finally got to sit down at 1am where Haruka came out to join me. He looked tired, no, exhausted. Like every bit of his energy has been exasperated, his hair was messy and he looked dishevelled. This wasn't the normal Haruka, something had happened out there.

"Listen, Kid" he said with a raspy voice, "We're all in a fluster because we had to deal with... white eyes" he continued.
"White eyes? As in the new paranormal being that was attacking Teresa earlier?" I asked, keeping my voice hushed as to not draw attention to the subject. He nodded in return. 
"Listen, this thing... this guy, he's nothing like what we've faced before" mumbled Haru with a grim face. Something must have really rocked the group, but he just wasn't letting me in on it.

"Tell me what happened, exactly" I babbled, now looking straight into Haruka's deep blue eyes. The steel blue kind, that you felt safe with when you looked into them. But as I said before, this wasn't the normal well kept Haru, he now had bags under his eyes.

"White eyes, he has more powers than all the demons combined. We don't know exactly what his motives are or where he stands with the demons. But from our brief interview, he's not one to be messed with" informed Haruka, looking straight back at me, you could tell he was reading my facial expressions.

"Ok well we have to go fight him, take him down or whatever" I blurted. He sighed as if he was expecting me to reply with this. "What? We have to stop him either way so I say we just do it now" I continued. 
"Jaelynn, he wounded Mayumi badly. We're beyond tired and our squad is weak. We can't return to the front lines for about a week" he lectured. I knew all this to be true but something about this newfound enemy was making me edgy.
"Fine... we'll rest up. Tell Mayumi that I hope she gets better. I've got to sleep, I was up all night waiting for you guys" I said, flashing a quick smile. Then, turning around quickly and walking off I was in my dorm and getting ready to finally sleep. 

Once I arrived to my dorm, everything was silent. Tori and Miriam seemed to be fast asleep, so I continued quietly. As I collapsed into my bed, my eyes drew upwards to the ceiling. A small symbol was inscribed onto the concrete roof. My vision slightly blurry due to lack of sleep, I couldn't quite make out the symbol. Ignoring it, I settled down into bed and shut my eyes. Sleep came slow, but I was thankful it even came.

I sat bolt up right, a single thought running across my mind. Rubbing my eyes and hastily getting up to find my book. It was thrown open underneath the dresser, unsure why, I picked it up and dusted it off. Returning to my bed and laid back down whilst flipping through the pages. Landing on the demonic symbols page, scanning the page for the symbol. There it was, big and bold. I read over the article on the specific symbol,

'The Shinigami symbol, appears at random to anyone. This symbol can only be summoned/placed by a powerful demon. The shinigami is used to symbolise the meaning of death, and what awaits the desired person is pain, and death. Within the circular symbol there will be a number. This number is how many months you have let to live until the high-ranking demon shall come to take your soul. There have been cases of how to leave this deal, but is very hard to work around. Shinigami Symbol has caused many to suffer due to sudden loss of their life. It is never explained as to why it is placed, however it is placed to a rare few.'

My heart stopped and I inhaled sharply as I cocked my head back to slowly focus on the symbol. There it was, imprinted onto the roof. In black thick inscription, circular with a single digit printed into the middle. I rose to my feet and peered up at the symbol, now closer to it, I could see that the single letter was a 9. Nine months to live wasn't a lot. It may seem like a fair chunk of time but considering I am only 18, nine months to live is definitely not what I had planned. Not only was I now faced with the impending doom that almost certain death, but the question as to how a demon even managed to penetrate this facility, walk through the halls into my dormitory and draw a symbol on the roof. I was in for a rough night, sleep came eventually but my mind was riddled with the thought of my death. 

The next morning wasn't any better than last night, the air was laced with a certain unease. Nothing felt right anymore, nothing felt safe, no one seemed trustworthy. Unfortunately for me, I had squad training that morning - having to endure the irritating voice of Jeremy yelling orders to anyone and everyone. It's not even his right to do so, Haruka is the person to run training but Jeremy finds it to be a fun hobby to torture us with grade-3 insults. 

"Morning Jaelynn! We've got fitness training today, I heard we've got to meet at the north entrance" announced Carson as he strode into the dining hall and sat down on the metal seat next to me, smiling broadly.
"Carson?" I stuttered in surprise, I hadn't see him come back last night but here he was sitting in front of me, displaying his warm smile.

"Jaelynn?" he replied, smiling like a child.

"When did you come back in, I stayed up all last night waiting for you to return!" I whisepered sharply, trying to keep my voice hushed and downplay the agitation in my voice.

"What do you mean? I came in at 10pm and went straight to bed" with a puzzled expression, Carson grabbed a roll from the bread basket and started on breakfast. 

An hour past and I slipped into my training gear, thick black jeans, singlet paired with heavy combat boots and a leather jacket. I tied my hair into a ponytail and exhaled deeply before standing up and making my way towards the north entrance.