After Eden [Book #1 of The Fall Trilogy]

Twelve ☾ ☽ Heaven & Hell

The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n. - John Milton

Twelve ☾ ☽ Heaven & Hell

Days at St. Peter's kept getting better and better in the worst possible way. First, strange, twisted dreams stricken my night, inexplicable notes from R followed me like a trail of bread crumbs, threats of execution dangled over my head, and now it seemed that the Academy was hiding a secret.

And by the end of the day, it would all end in a murder.

However, I'll get to that later.

Because the day after Kiara, Ronan, Juno, and I had stumbled on those late night intruders, I was about to fight for my own life in Supernatural Defense, my only class Kiara had unfortunately not been relocated to.

I stood awkwardly in the a mess of about nineteen other boys, all of us dressed in matching St. Peter's athletic uniforms. I stared down at my crumbling sneakers that were a couple sizes too big as Coach Briar sauntered up to us, a whistle hanging around his neck, a bag of balls clutched in his left hand, and multiple keys attached to a key ring in his right.

Coach Briar was a mountain of a man with a hard, dull eyes and a mouth that was eternally pulled into a thin line. He was also a fiend, more commonly known as a demon. And no, he did not have red skin, horns protruding from his forehead, nor a pitchfork strapped to his back. However, the way he looked at me, it seemed like he wanted to stab me with a pitchfork.

He twirled the key ring in his hand, sizing up the group of silent boys. He didn't seem impressed.

"Today, we play dodge ball," he all but growled, throwing the bag of balls unexpectedly at Seff, who caught them with ease.

Oh, I didn't mention Seff was in my class? He was, and a day didn't go by that he didn't remind me of it.

Shin Minjae, the boy who I had caught Ronan with in the technician room, rose his hand bravely. I had learned that Minjae was also a demon, a Korean Dokkaebi to be more specific. I figured that Coach Briar had a small soft spot for the boy in what little heart he had.

"Yes, Minjae," he said, a little less rough.

"How does dodge ball have anything to do with teaching us how to defend ourselves?"

The question hung in the stale air of the gymnasium for a long moment. He stopped swirling he keys, and in a loud voice, he answered, "It has everything to do with self defense!" before blowing the whistle, the loud, shrilling noise cutting through the air.

"Divide into two teams and then line up on the baseline!"

Seconds later, I was pushed onto one side of the court, and I reluctantly went to stand on the baseline along with Minjae and others as Seff and his other werewolf friends stood opposite of us. I looked down the line at me team, and quietly contemplated how many seconds we could last against Seff and his army of very mean looking guys. I said my prayers while Coach Briar lined the multi-colored balls on the half court line.

Across the court, Seff glowered and cracked his knuckles. His gaze locked on mine, and from the corner of my eyes, I saw Coach Briar hold the whistle up to his mouth.

Crap.  

The whistle blew, and the gym descended into chaos. I soon learned that regular dodge ball in no way compared to supernatural dodge  ball. I barley registered the furious dash towards the balls nor the blue one that whizzed centimeters away from face in a blink of an eye. Two of my teammates were already out in a matter of seconds before I realized I was still rooted to the baseline.